Shakedown
by Neuropsych
Summary: New ship, new enemies...
1. Chapter 1

_**Shakedown**_

"Colonel Mitchell…"

With a sigh that wasn't completely silent, Melony Mitchell stopped in the middle of the corridor outside her quarters and turned. Trotting toward her, looking wide awake and far too eager for the time of day, was one of the new technicians that had been brought in from Stargate Command on Earth only a week or so before. This one was a young man who looked about twelve, but that she knew was well into his twenties.

_Phillip_ Talon told her, helpfully. Her symbiote was far better at remembering names than she was. _She_ was lucky most of the time to remember faces.

Phillip what?

There was no way she was going to call him by his first name if she could avoid it. He and all the new ones that came – those who knew who she was, anyway – were already peeking around corners and shadowing her in the hallways trying to get up the nerve to introduce themselves. While it was annoying, it was also amusing to many of her friends – which was also annoying, really.

_Jefferson_

Thanks.

"Doctor Jefferson?"

The young man smiled, clearly pleased that she'd recognized him.

"Doctor McKay wants you to meet him in the cafeteria."

"What? He's awake?"

She looked at her watch again, just to make sure she hadn't read it wrong when she'd gotten out of bed. Nope, it was just past 5 am Atlantis time. She was up early because she wanted a chance to spar with Ronon Dex before she started her day, but Rodney McKay wasn't known for getting out of bed any earlier than necessary.

"He never went to bed."

"Huh."

"He's been working on the _Atlantica_."

Mitchell scowled, her annoyance at being stalked by the newbies and the name Rodney had arbitrarily decided on for _her_ ship cresting much quicker than normal.

"That's not its name."

The young doctor lost his enthusiasm, looking uncertain.

"It's what _he_ calls it."

"I don't care what he calls it, I don't want it spreading. Understand?"

_Easy, Hotshot_

"I'm sorry," Jefferson said. "He's been working on your ship."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

The young doctor hurried off, his message delivered and his steps less jaunty than before.

_Well, strike down one case of hero worship_, Talon said, dryly.

She sighed.

"I probably was rough on him, huh?"

_You think? You didn't shoot him or stab him or tie him up and leave him hanging by his toenails…_

"Yeah, yeah… I just…" she shrugged, uncertain why she was so grumpy that morning. But then again, she wasn't really a morning person. "I need coffee."

Talon agreed.

_And you can see what McKay wants_

"Yeah."

She turned and started to walk again, but was almost run over when the door to the quarters next to her own opened and Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard emerged, looking like she felt.

"Colonel."

She smiled.

"Colonel."

_He_ was the reason she'd been up so late the night before – and was so tired and grumpy just then. Well, him and several of the others. Sheppard had just returned from Stargate Command with almost an entire season worth of football games on DVDs that she and many of the others had been more than willing to stay up late and watch – and make small wagers on, as well. They'd watched half the games of week one before the late hour and the fact that many of them had to be up early for patrols, experiments and countless other priorities that wouldn't wait just because they had been crazy enough to stay up all night forced them to call it a night and go to bed.

"Got my ten bucks?"

She scowled again, but her expression didn't have the same effect on Sheppard that it had on young Doctor Jefferson. He only grinned, smugly, and waited for an excuse.

"Check's in the mail."

Sheppard snorted, amused.

"Double or nothing on the Packers at the Lions?"

"You're on."

"Where are you heading?"

"Commissary. Apparently, I've been _summoned_."

"Oh? Elizabeth?"

Sheppard really couldn't think of anyone – who woke up early – that would have the brass to 'summon' Mitchell aside from Elizabeth Weir. And really, if _Elizabeth_ wanted to talk to Mitchell, she would have come looking for her, rather than send for her.

"Rodney."

"Ah." That explained that, then. "What's he doing up?"

"Never went to bed, I'm told."

"Huh."

They fell into step beside each other easily, and headed to the commissary without conversation; both simply tired enough to need the exercise to wake up. It wasn't that far away, but by the time they reached it, Melony was feeling more herself and was able to manage a little guilt at being so short with Doctor Jefferson. Talon simply made an odd humming noise in her head that she ignored since she knew he was only doing it to annoy her.

"Ah! There you are!"

Rodney McKay was seated at a table close to the entrance – no doubt waiting for her – and while he looked tired and rumpled, he also looked smug and a little excited.

Excited enough that Melony actually ignored the coffee pots in favor of walking over to the table he was sitting at, with Sheppard still at her side.

"Here I am," she agreed. "You wanted to see me?"

He nodded, looking back down at the laptop that he'd been typing on when she'd entered and turning the screen so she could see it.

"Your ship's done."


	2. Chapter 2

Sheppard looked over Mitchell's shoulder at the screen on the laptop, but it was just filled with a bunch of diagrams and assorted information that he was pretty sure Mitchell didn't understand any more than he did.

"You finished it?" he asked, curiously, instead. "I thought you needed to wait for Colonel Carter to get back?"

McKay rolled his eyes.

"She already added her input," he told them both. "All that was left to put the finishing touches on it – which I'm more than capable of handling by myself."

"Which finishing touches are we speaking about?" Melony asked, pulling the laptop over so she could get a better look. Actually, so _Talon_ could get a better look, since he definitely knew more about what the screen was saying than she did. _He_ was the nerd of the team, after all.

_You're just jealous_

Melony smiled and ignored him and waited for McKay's answer while skimming through the file in front of her. They'd been keeping up with the build of the new ship just enough to let McKay and Carter – and all the other techs who had volunteered to work on it as well – know what she and Talon wanted it to do, but had trusted Sam's good sense to keep things from getting out of hand.

And then Jack O'Neill had summoned Carter back to Earth a few months ago. Which had left Rodney alone in charge of the ship construction. Something that would have worried Melony if they'd had a lot of time to think about it. She hadn't had time, though. Not with the other demands on her time. There was never enough time to get back to the ship project – especially since the Jumpers worked well enough as transportation that she wasn't in a super hurry to get the new ship built.

"Weapons systems and the DHD," McKay answered, pulling the laptop back and pointing to a schematic on the screen. "The DHD will work a lot like the ones on the Jumpers, but _Atlantica_ will have the added benefit of having two different dialers – one on each console, just in case the copilot is too busy with something else to dial – or you're flying alone and you don't have anyone to dial and can't reach the center console." He looked smug. "And the DHDs are _retractable_, like a cup holder. They hide in the consoles until we need them."

"I'm not calling her _Atlantica_, Rodney," Melony told him – again.

"It's a good name," McKay protested.

"We could call it the _Meredith_," Sheppard said with a smirk.

McKay rewarded him with a scowl.

"Funny." He looked over at Mitchell. "Look, it's the first ship built in Atlantis since the Ancients started making the Jumpers. It deserves a good name to commemorate that."

She didn't look convinced and it showed. McKay made an impatient noise.

"What does _Talon_ think?"

"He agrees with me," she told him.

"What? You didn't even stop to _ask_ him."

"We're not calling it _Atlantica_, McKay."

"Well, how about _The McKay_?"

Sheppard snorted, and even Melony lost her annoyance at the blatant attempt to get her to go back to his original choice and smiled – a little.

"Let's go take a look at it," she said. "It'll be interesting to see what they decided to-"

"No, no, no…" Rodney interrupted, shaking his head and closing his laptop with a slight snap. "I want to do the unveiling right. With proper pomp and ceremony."

"Are you nuts?"

"It's not the _Queen Mary 2_, Rodney," Sheppard added.

"Oh, come on," McKay pouted. "I put a lot of time and brain power into this thing. If you're not going to let me pick the name at least let me have my moment of unveiling…"

_He has put a lot of effort into it,_ Talon agreed, taking McKay's side – not something he'd normally do. _A little ceremony won't hurt anything_

She rolled her eyes, but shrugged.

"Fine. But nothing too ostentatious and no breaking wine bottles against it."

"How did you know I-"

"I have my sources," she interrupted.

"We still don't have a _name_ to put on the side…" McKay pointed out.

"We haven't had much chance to think about it," Melony told him.

"You've had _months_."

"We've been busy."

He looked unconvinced, but then Sheppard did, too, she noticed.

"I need some coffee…"

As she turned to the counter that held the huge coffee pots that were perpetually filled with reasonably fresh coffee, she could hear McKay and Sheppard talking in the background, but it was Talon that had most of her attention.

_We could call it Fugliest_

Melony smiled.

Carter would be disappointed.

The ship was actually a pretty neat looking craft, almost all the aesthetics designed by Colonel Carter and a small team she'd brought from Earth when she'd first been asked to help on the ship. It definitely deserved a better name than its predecessors.

_O'Neill would be amused_

True.

She poured a cup of coffee for herself and another for Sheppard, and walked back over to the table. Handing the other cup to John, she turned her attention back to McKay.

"When is the unveiling, then?"

Might as well get it over with. Besides, now that it was done, she was itching to get into it and try it out.

"Are there any teams offworld?" Rodney asked.

Melony looked over at Sheppard, who would know that answer better than she did. She wasn't the one who did the assigning, after all. He nodded without needing to check.

"Three teams on recons, one on a trading mission with the Farmers."

No need to ask which farmers. The only ones that he wouldn't clarify on were those that lived on the world that the Light Ones lived on. They were thriving with their relationship with the Light Ones, and it was showing in the quality of the foodstuff they were sending back to Atlantis once harvests had started coming in. Even though Earth could supply Atlantis easily, now, they usually ate what their trading partners sent before resorting to asking for resupply from the SGC.

"Well, we don't need to wait for them," McKay said. "We could probably have the ceremony this afternoon."

"What ceremony?" came a voice behind them.

They all turned, and saw that Ronon Dex had entered the commissary while they'd been talking. Not surprisingly, none of them had noticed.

"My ship's done," Melony said, giving him a nod in greeting. "Rodney wants to make it a party."

To Melony's surprised Ronon nodded his agreement as he sat down next to McKay.

"On Sateda when a ship was finished it was a pretty big deal. Especially a warship. There was always a party."

McKay looked pleased and not a little smug.

"See?"

Mitchell rolled her eyes, but shrugged.

"Fine. We can have a ceremony."

Rodney beamed.

"Great!"

"But nothing too ostentatious."

"Of course not."


	3. Chapter 3

The new ship had been built in an auxiliary Jumper bay. One that the Atlanteans had found and had hoped initially that it would be filled with more Jumpers, but which Zelenka had discovered was empty – although it might well have been a repair station for them or even a building area. It certainly had enough room for that and several workstations that integrated nicely with Atlantis' other systems.

McKay had immediately claimed it for building Mitchell's new ship.

The area had been teeming with scientists and engineers of all sorts, and the masses of their equipment and the materials they were using to build the newest ship. Now it was almost completely cleared out, aside from the main repair stations that hadn't gone anywhere since the city itself had been built, most likely, a lot of wiring that had just been used the evening before and a large distinctly ship-looking bulk that was covered by a huge cloth that was almost certainly several dark sheets sewn together and then draped over the new ship to keep people from getting a look at the new craft before it was time.

"We've all seen it," Radek Zelenka grumbled, looking at the cloth-covered craft.

"Not _everyone_."

McKay looked down at his laptop, which was hooked up to the systems of the new ship.

"Yes, Rodney, I'm pretty sure everyone has."

It hadn't been a big secret what they'd been building, and everyone on Atlantis had stopped by for a look more than once. Some of them – especially the scientists – were as familiar with the new ship as Rodney himself was. Well, probably not as well as McKay, who knew it back and forth and as well as the back of his hand.

"Well, the sheet gives it more mystery."

Zelenka rolled his eyes, but McKay wasn't even watching him.

"Has she told you what she's going to name it, yet?"

McKay scowled but didn't look up.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't think she knows what she's going to call it."

"What? How is that? She's had months to decide."

"She's been busy, _Radek_." Perversely, Rodney found himself defending Mitchell, even though he agreed completely with Zelenka. He just couldn't admit it. "It's time consuming being the only system lord in the Pegasus system, after all."

"Or anywhere else…"

"Right."

McKay turned his attention back to what he was doing, but before he could start checking to make sure all of the new systems were functioning properly, there was a commotion at one of the two entrances to the room – not including the ceiling entrance that opened to allow whatever ship happened to be in there to take off. Zelenka looked over and smiled.

"The balloons are here."

McKay scowled and looked up at him.

"What?" He looked over at the entrance, where a couple of techs were trying to get large bunches of red, white and blue balloons through the door. "Oh, no. I forgot about the balloons…"

"What?"

Rodney scowled.

"Melony said we can't have a party."

"Why not?"

McKay rolled his eyes.

"Says she doesn't want to make a big deal out of it all."

"It's the first ship built and designed in Atlantis since the Puddle Jumpers," Zelenka said. "It _is_ a big deal. Not to mention all the time that's been put into it and-"

"I told her that, Radek," McKay interrupted. "She doesn't want a party. Put those in that back room," he added when one of the techs finally made it into the room – only popping a few balloons in the process.

"What about all the food?" Zelenka asked.

McKay shrugged.

"Ceremonies have _food_. We can have that, still."

"And the games? And the video? And the flight simulator? What about the speech you-"

"We'll have to cut back on some of that," Rodney interrupted.

OOOOOOOOOO

"So what _are_ you going to name it?" Sheppard asked as he, Melony and Ronon gathered up a light breakfast and refreshed their coffee cups.

"I don't have a clue. Got any ideas?"

He smiled.

"Seriously?"

She nodded and shrugged.

"I'm terrible at naming things. No originality – we had a dog named Brownie and a cat named Whiskers when I was a kid."

"Wow…"

"I know."

"Should have had one of those _name the ship_ contests…"

She snorted.

"Rodney would have found a way to cheat and I'd be calling it the _McKay_."

Since that was definitely a possibility, he nodded.

"Good point." He took a sip of his coffee. "Just don't call it the _Sheppard_."

"Why not?"

"Because you've blown up the last two ships you've had. I don't want my namesake joining them."

She smiled.

"I don't have any reason to blow it up."

"Not yet."

"I'm not planning on blowing it up."

"Not _yet_."

"You're a pessimist, John."

He gave her an innocent look.

"The facts speak for themselves. You should call it the _Time Bomb_. Or _Boom_."

"Cute."

"Or you could really annoy McKay and call it the _Sam Carter_," Ronon added.

Melony snorted.

"That would annoy Carter, too, though."

True.

"Well, whatever you name it, I want to go on the shakedown trip," Ronon told her.

"Me, too," Sheppard added.

_You know McKay will want to go, as well_, Talon added.

He's worked hard on it; it'd be fair to let him come.

_True_

"And McKay," Sheppard said, echoing their own conversation without realizing it.

Mitchell nodded.

"If he wants to go he's more than welcome."

She hadn't even considered making the shakedown some kind of special trip, figuring it would just be a good way to make sure the drive pods worked to get the ship through the stargates in the same manner as the Puddle Jumpers and maybe check out the new drive Carter had designed for it. One that they'd use in some of the new Earth-based ships if it worked well in Mitchell's new one.

"When do we go?"

"After the ceremony."

"It's bad luck to fly an unnamed ship," Ronon told her, turning more of his attention to his breakfast. "You're going to have to think of a name."

Melony sighed.


	4. Chapter 4

Elizabeth Weir stopped in the entrance of the auxiliary hangar and stared.

"You've got to be kidding me…"

Melony Mitchell gave her a slightly chagrined look – one that was mixed with just a little annoyance.

"So much for it not being a party, huh?"

"You told him to scale it back?"

Sheppard smirked from the other side of Mitchell.

"Rodney's getting even with her."

"For what?"

"I named the ship."

"Oh? And he doesn't like the name?"

"He doesn't _know_ the name," Melony told her. "I shooed everyone out of the room and painted it on the ship myself."

"And then put a Jaffa guard on that section to keep anyone – _especially_ Rodney – from peeking," John added, clearly amused.

Weir smiled as well.

"That's cruel, Colonel…"

"He can find out when everyone else does," Melony replied with a shrug. She looked at all the decorations in the room, and lost her amused smile. "Besides, he's had his chance to get even…"

The room was strewn with party decorations of every sort. All in red, white and blue – mainly because there weren't a lot of other options when it came to ordering that kind of thing from Stargate Command on Earth. There were balloons and bunting and confetti everywhere in the room, and two huge tables – one on the West end of the room and one on the East – which were filled with food of all sorts and kinds. At the North and South ends of the room were tables with drinks of all sorts – mostly nonalcoholic, but not all – and a large magnum of champagne on a small stand by the rear of the covered ship.

Clearly Rodney had decided that she wasn't going to kill him if he decided to do a real party – and it was an easy way to get back at her for the secrecy when it came to the name of the ship. And of course, she wasn't going to kill him for it.

_You might even enjoy yourself_

Yeah, yeah.

It wasn't like she was against parties in general; she just didn't like it when they were focused on her, really. Oddly enough, she much preferred to spend time with just a few people instead of large crowds. Which wasn't the way she'd been before she'd blended with Talon.

_You don't have any privacy anymore, Hot Shot,_ he explained to her cheerfully._ It's not so odd that you'd prefer to be in a smaller crowd now_

"Is there anyone left watching the control room?" Sheppard asked, looking at the crowd that was gathered. A mixture of civilian scientists and military personnel – and some who actually included into both groups at the same time – were mingling with a large contingent of Jaffa and Athosians.

Elizabeth was looking for a clown – or a pony ride. Rodney had certainly outdone himself this time. She wasn't surprised, though. He always tended to do things big. Which was one of the reasons she was so interested in seeing the ship now that it was finally finished. There was no doubt in her mind that the little craft under the sheets was going to be amazing.

"We're rotating them off and on so anyone who wants to come can," she said, distractedly, wondering why there wasn't a band. "When do the ceremonies begin?"

"When we-"

"You're here! Good."

She was interrupted by Rodney, who came over with a smug satisfied smirk on his face that she found was far more amusing than annoying.

"We're here," Elizabeth agreed. "Love what you've done with the place…"

He didn't catch the sarcasm – or ignored it completely. With McKay it was hard to tell sometimes.

"Yes, well…" he glanced over at Mitchell and then back to Weir. "Shall we start?"

Mitchell nodded and started to say something, but Rodney rubbed his hands together and turned around.

"Okay, everyone listen up!" Since there wasn't a band – or any music of any kind – it wasn't hard for people to hear him, and everyone turned toward him. The Jaffa in the group straightened even more than they were when they noticed that Mitchell was in the doorway, but she ignored them for the moment, knowing that they actually preferred that.

_Old habits die hard sometimes_, Talon remarked. _It wasn't that long ago that the full attention of a system lord was almost certainly a death sentence to them_

I know.

She wasn't offended.

"We're ready to start." He turned to Melony. "Colonel?"

Since she didn't have a clue what he'd planned, Mitchell simply stepped forward, moving to stand in front of the sheet covered ship and turned to face the assembly.

"I just wanted to thank all of you who helped out on this project," she said, improvising a speech that she probably should have written down or at least practiced once or twice. "We really appreciate it."

Since the people in the group who knew McKay best had expected some lengthy ceremony, there were many relieved sighs when it became obvious that the speech was over. Melony smiled and looked over at Rodney.

"You helped design it and you've spent the most time on it… want to do the honors?"

He looked surprised, and then gratified.

"What? You're sure _you_ don't want to?"

"Go ahead, Rodney."

Sheppard and Weir both stepped a little closer to get a good look at the unveiling, and McKay reached over and took hold of one of the ends of the sheet.

"Ready?"

She nodded, watching, and he pulled it off in a short series of tugs that weren't nearly as graceful as he'd probably originally intended. Despite the fact that Radek had been right and pretty much everyone on Atlantis had seen the ship at one point or another during her construction, there was still a murmur of appreciation when it was finally unveiled.

Melony smiled, because it was exactly what she'd wanted – as she'd already known it was. About the same size as a Jumper with retractable drive pods to give it the same bulk and still allow it to use the stargates, that was the only characteristic that it shared with the Ancient's ingenious spacecraft. Mitchell's little ship was closer to the shape of an actual space shuttle than a coffee can and far more aesthetically pleasing – thanks to Sam Carter's good taste.

"Nice…" Weir murmured nearby.

Sheppard smiled; impressed and itching to fly it simply because it was a new ship and flying was what he did best.

McKay was clearly enjoying the moment – and he deserved to, Melony decided. She gave the crowd a moment to quiet again and then smiled.

"I'd like to introduce you all to my new ship, _Lantica_."


	5. Chapter 5

The murmurs renewed, this time in response to the name of the ship and McKay frowned, looking over at her and still holding the sheet in his hand.

"_Lantica_? But… but that's what _I_ suggested."

She shook her head.

"No it isn't. You wanted _Atlantica_."

"Or _McKay_," Sheppard added, listening in.

He rolled his eyes and dropped the sheet.

"It's the _same_ thing."

Melony shrugged.

"Not exactly."

"Pretty close. I mean…" he lost the frown and his eyes lit up a little while his expression lightened. "I _practically_ named your ship."

"Gave me the idea for it, at least," she allowed.

"Huh. How do you like that?" this last wasn't said to anyone, really, so neither of them answered him, instead they turned and headed for one of the food tables, knowing that he'd follow them if he wanted to continue the conversation.

"So when's the shakedown flight?" Sheppard asked.

""There are still a few touches she'll need before I'm ready to take her out," Melony responded.

"She's ready to fly, now," McKay told them both, proving that they'd been right about him following.

"I want it set up that you have to be registered somehow with the ship in order to fly her…"

McKay waved his hand impatiently.

"Already taken care of. Both the pilot and copilot controls are set up with sensors that check fingerprints against a database in the ship's memory. If you're not in the memory and you try to fly the ship it'll send a slight shock through the stick to keep you from trying it again."

"Clever…" Sheppard said, uncertainly.

"Don't worry, Sheppard," the astrophysicist told him with a slight smirk. "I've already added you to the database."

"You did?"

"Unlike _Fugly_ and _Fuglier_, I can't be the only one capable of flying _Lantica_," Melony pointed out. "Just in case something happens we need to have a back up. You're the best pilot here, so it's only right you be included."

Sheppard grinned, looking more like a little boy who'd found the world's best present under the Christmas tree than an officer in the Air Force. Of course, he probably had.

"Thanks."

"You can't wear gloves while flying, but I've noticed that you don't anyway," McKay continued. "And like the Jumpers, _Lantica_ won't power up for anyone she doesn't recognize – although there's no gene involved so anyone can be included."

"Well done, Rodney," Mitchell told him. "Who's included so far?"

"As far as pilots go? You, Teal'c and Sheppard. I added myself and Radek, simply because we've needed to be able to get into the systems while we were working on them."

"But you didn't include yourself as a pilot?" Sheppard asked.

McKay shrugged.

"I can fly it in an emergency. Radek shouldn't even be considered."

Since Zelenka hadn't been able to practice on the Jumpers there was no way she'd let him practice on _Lantica_, so that wasn't going to be a concern.

They gathered plates of refreshments and headed for a table, joined almost immediately by Ronon, Teyla, Weir, Teal'c and Ford who had all loaded plates as well.

"Nice party, Colonel Mitchell," Teyla said with a slight smile.

Melony scowled.

"It wasn't _supposed_ to be."

McKay was in too good of a mood to get defensive.

"It's well deserved," he said, gesturing to the scientists who had gathered around Lantica to admire the ship's lines. "They worked hard on it."

"You did, too," Melony told him, seriously. "I appreciate all the work you did."

"She's a fine looking ship," Sheppard added, raising his paper cup of juice toward McKay, who was now turning a little pink.

"Hear, hear," Melony said, raising hers as well.

The others followed suit, and Weir couldn't help but smile, because McKay looked about ready to wriggle under the table and vanish in pleased embarrassment.

"When does she go on her shakedown?" Ronon asked. "And can I come?"

"Me, too," Ford added, grinning with excitement.

Melony looked over at McKay.

"She's ready to fly?"

"Yes."

"We can leave in the morning, then." Mitchell looked at McKay. "You're welcomed to come, of course."

Rodney smiled. He'd already planned on going, just so he could spot any possible bugs before they became any issues.

"Of course."

Not offended, Mitchell looked at Teal'c.

"You coming?"

The big Jaffa shook his head.

"I will not be here."

He had planned on taking some of the Jaffa on Atlantis and giving them a chance to switch duties with others on a couple of different planets to give anyone an opportunity to do something new and more interesting if they wanted to. Not something they'd ever had the chance to do before Mitchell and Talon had taken over.

"Teyla?"

The Athosian shook her head.

"I am going with Teal'c."

"No big surprise there…" McKay muttered, softly.

"Elizabeth?"

Weir shook her head with a smile.

"If you and John are leaving, I need to be here."

There was no doubt that Sheppard wanted to go, and they didn't even need to discuss it. But Weir was right; they needed someone to stay and run things – no matter how short the shakedown was intended to be. Besides, Elizabeth didn't get the rush out of flying that Sheppard and Mitchell did.

"You can come next time," Mitchell promised her.

She smiled.

"I'll hold you to that."

"We'll meet here in the morning," Mitchell decided, looking at the others to see if there were any objections. All she saw were several nods and a couple excited grins.

"This is going to be great," Sheppard said, digging into his lunch.

Melony couldn't help but agree.


	6. Chapter 6

When Rodney McKay walked into the auxiliary hangar early the next morning, he had figured that he'd be the first person there. He was surprised, therefore, to see that Mitchell had already arrived and seemed to be doing a preflight of all the external systems. She flashed him a smile of welcome when he walked over, a small duffle bag slung over his shoulder and a cup of coffee in his other hand, but didn't stop what she was doing. Knowing that _he_ didn't appreciate it when people interrupted him with stupid questions when he was busy – and they were _always_ stupid questions – he waited for her to finish, fairly certain when he saw a fresh cup of coffee near at hand that it wouldn't be long until she stopped long enough to take a sip at least.

Sure enough, a couple minutes later she finished the examination of the left drive pod and turned her attention to her coffee. And him.

"Good morning."

He hesitated.

"I was going to do the preflight for you."

She shrugged.

"I figured I might as well get to know her a little better."

Which made sense, he supposed.

"Well… want me to do the _internal_ systems?"

She shook her head.

"I already did that."

He didn't even bother to hide his surprise.

"How long have you been up?"

She shrugged.

"A while."

_All night_

Close enough.

It was hard not to be excited. _Lantica_ was everything Carter and McKay had told her it would be and she was really looking forward to flying her. She'd actually been the last one out the night before and had returned to the hangar only hours later to start preflight checks that normally only lasted a few minutes, but took longer this time; both because she was being careful since it was the first time they'd be flying it and because she'd stop every now and then and admire one feature or another.

Rodney made a slightly annoyed noise and set his bag down.

"Have you decided where we're _going_ on this maiden flight?"

It wasn't something that had really been discussed, since it wasn't an actual mission per se, and she hadn't really given it a lot of thought.

"I figured we'd just take her for a spin – go through a Stargate or two to test the drive pods and make sure the navigation systems and the DHD are working the way they're supposed to." She had a feeling, though, that he had other ideas, and figured she might as well ask. "Why? What do _you_ have in mind?"

He gave her a smug smile.

"I thought we might go pick up Carson."

Now it was her turn to hesitate. Not because she didn't like the idea, but because it really wasn't something she'd even considered.

"He's not due back for five days…"

McKay shrugged.

"So? We can shakedown first and then pick him up."

_He just wants to show off the ship_

Melony didn't have a problem with showing off the ship, though, so she didn't mind that. However, Carson Beckett was on an important trip – checking the health of a large group of refugees that had been discovered on one of the last planets culled by the Wraith, and she was pretty sure he wasn't going to want to cut it short – or even be distracted – even to see the new ship. Although he'd probably tell her he didn't mind.

"We should-"

_"Colonel Mitchell to the control room, please. Control Mitchell, please report to the control room."_

The voice was one of the technicians who were in charge of monitoring the computers in the control room overnight. He obviously hadn't expected her to be up and about at this time of day or he would have used the radio to contact her personally instead of making it a city wide general call.

McKay frowned.

"What do _they_ want?"

She shrugged and immediately set down her coffee cup, figuring that the only thing that would have them calling her to the control room at this time of day was something important. And since it was the overnight crew doing the calling, it had to be something that came up suddenly enough that Weir and the others hadn't been called up, either.

"What time is it on Earth?" she asked.

McKay looked at his watch.

"Mid-afternoon."

"Come on."

They headed toward the nearest transporter

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Elizabeth Weir looked like she'd roused out of bed only a minute before – which probably was the case given the early hour. She looked up as Mitchell and Rodney walked in, Teal'c standing beside her and a just as rumpled looking Teyla entering from the other direction at the same time with Sheppard right beside her. They had just enough time to register that the gate was activated before Weir waved them over.

"You have a message, Colonel."

She walked over and looked at the monitor – and wasn't at all surprised to see that Jack O'Neill was on the other end. Who else would be calling from the SGC?

"Jack?"

He forced a smile, but she knew him well enough to know that he was a little worried about something.

"Colonel. I need you on this end of the gate."

She raised an eyebrow at that. Both the formality and the order.

"What's going on, General?"

"I'll tell you when you get here."

Meaning he didn't want whatever it was to be overheard – either by his people or Weir's.

She frowned, wondering what it was.

"Alone?"

"No. Bring Teal'c and whoever else you want. I'll see you when you get here."

He turned and nodded at someone off screen and the monitor went blank and the Stargate disengaged.

Huh.

Mitchell turned to the others.

"Looks like we're going to Earth."


	7. Chapter 7

Rodney frowned.

"Are you sure we should be bringing _Lantica_?"

Mitchell nodded.

"Jack wants me to bring Teal'c, which means there might be a problem on one of the Jaffa held planets. If that's the case, then I want to be mobile, which means bringing one of the jumpers. Since I want to try _Lantica_ out anyway, we might as well bring her instead of a jumper."

"Makes sense to me," Sheppard agreed, shouldering his pack as they walked into the auxiliary hangar one more time. Eventually they'd have a berth for the new ship in the main jumper bay, but they'd work on that when they were done with whatever what was going on back home. "Do I get to drive?"

Mitchell snorted, amused despite the seriousness of Jack O'Neill's expression and message.

"Not this time, flyboy. First flight is mine."

"Shotgun," McKay claimed before anyone else could, and Sheppard scowled, annoyed that he hadn't thought of calling it first.

Melony's smile grew at Sheppard's annoyed look and the rear of the craft slid open and down, creating a smooth ramp that was fairly similar to the ones on the jumpers – which was where Rodney had gotten that idea in the first place. Stairs or ladders weren't as convenient to climb if someone was chasing you, after all.

The group climbed the ramp and despite the fact that they were in something of a hurry, they all hesitated at the entrance to the ship.

"That is impressive…" Ford murmured, looking around.

And it was. The ship's interior was white and highly polished metal. There were two drop down jump seats along the sides of the ship that could be used for extra passengers if needed – again similar to the jumpers – and a side panel that was designed to interface with whatever equipment was brought into the ship by whoever needed to use it. However, as Mitchell and McKay both knew, it wouldn't work for anyone who wasn't introduced to the ship. The panels would remain dead unless activated. A way of keeping the technology of the ship out of the wrong hands in the event that something happened.

The front of the ship had a pilot seat and copilot seat with controls that were similar to the jumpers as well – except that the controls were actually a copy of the ones that had been on both _Fugly_ and _Fuglier_. No sense changing what Mitchell was already comfortable with, after all. The front 'dash' was filled with the normal controls that all pilots would understand, and when Mitchell sat down she slid a hand along a sensor panel to activate the recognition software before putting her hand on the actual control.

"Good morning, Colonel Mitchell."

Melony looked over at Rodney, who was settling into the copilot chair.

"Voice?"

He looked slightly defensive.

"Why not? It might be nice for you to have someone to talk to on a long lonely trip…"

_What am I? Chopped liver?_

They'd discussed the ship being voice activated, but they hadn't discussed the thing talking back to her.

"Why does it sound a little like you?"

"It's _not_."

Again the defensive, but they didn't have time to discuss it just then. They could always change it later.

"Initiate start up procedures."

"Command accepted."

A HUD display popped up between the two of them, stretching across the entire front of the interior but not enough to interfere with actually piloting the ship. It showed all of the ship's systems and a colored bar beside each to tell them the status of each system – and all were turning green as the ship powered up in response to her voice command.

"That's sweet," Sheppard said, moving up to stand between the two of them and looking at the HUD.

"We wanted the same kind of mental link as the jumpers," Rodney told him. "But that kind of technology is still beyond us, so we did the next best thing. Voice recognition."

"Will it talk to me, too?"

"It's not HAL," McKay said. "It's just voice recognition. We're a long way away from artificial intelligence of that sort."

"But it will react to voice commands," Mitchell added. "Coffee."

A slide shelf popped out from under the center console, and Sheppard shook his head, torn between amusement and disbelief.

"You have a built in coffee pot?"

"It was one of the first things we decided on," McKay told him, smugly, watching as the small container started filling with coffee. The entire cabin smelled like fresh brewed coffee only a moment later, and everyone sniffed with appreciation. It _was_ very early, after all.

"It's a good blend, too," Melony said.

"External communications," Rodney said.

"Activated," came the immediate reply.

He looked at Sheppard, clearly impressed with himself. Sheppard had to admit _he_ was, too.

"Atlantis control," Melony said. "This is Lantica, how do you read me?"

Weir's voice came over the radio only a moment later.

"_This is Atlantis Control, _Lantica_. We read you fine. Are you about ready?"_

"Roger," Melony answered. "Is the gate room cleared?"

"_Affirmative. You are cleared to enter the gate room, Lantica."_

Mitchell grinned as she put her hands on the controls.

"You'd better buckle up, Colonel," she told Sheppard. "Just in case…"

He frowned.

"Just in case of what?"

"It is a new ship," McKay told him. "You never know what might happen…"

Sheppard scowled, but he had to admit that it was a good point. He went over and sat down on the jump seat by Ford, who was grinning excitedly.

"This is going to be great."

In the pilot seat Melony couldn't help the smile on her face, either. It really _was_ an impressive little ship.

"Ready?" she asked McKay.

He nodded.

A moment later the ceiling of the auxiliary hangar opened and Mitchell took her new little ship up and out, and headed for the entrance to the control room.

"Dial it up, Rodney."

Even as she said it, McKay was palming yet another panel, and right above the coffee pot a flat panel popped out, displaying a touch pad with the gate symbols on it.

"Like one of the jumpers," Ford said, looking over Sheppard's head to get a better look.

"Pretty close, yeah."

McKay ignored them and dialed Earth.

Yeah, this was going to be interesting.


	8. Chapter 8

Weir watched as the ship came down the opening in the ceiling to hover in front of the activated Stargate.

"It is a pretty little ship, isn't it?" she asked Peter Grodin, who was standing beside her.

"It is, indeed," he agreed. "Wonder why they aren't going through…?"

OOOOOOOOOO

"Gate's active, have we got any IDC yet?"

Sam Carter looked down at the computer in front of her, and then over at her commanding officer, who was standing beside her.

"Nothing yet."

The shield that protected SGC – a similar shield to the one that protected Atlantis – glowed a gentle blue in stark contrast against the cold concrete that the entire room was made of.

"Well-"

"_Stargate command, this is Lantica. Please lower the shield."_

Jack frowned. He'd recognized the voice over the radio but not the name.

"_Lantica_? What the hell is that?"

Carter shrugged, but she had an idea. She didn't voice it, though.

"We should probably lower the shield, sir."

"Right."

He nodded and she palmed the panel that lowered the shield.

"_Lantica_, this is Stargate Command, the-"

Before she'd even finished the sentence a silver craft came through – about the same size as one of the space shuttles, and far more striking. The gate shut down behind them, and O'Neill scowled.

"She cut that pretty close…"

He was impressed by the small ship, of course, but not the risk that Mitchell had taken – and that was annoying.

"Not as close as you might think," Sam replied. "Colonel Mitchell's new ship was designed to have a sensor that goes through the gate ahead of it to let them know if there's anything blocking the way that might make entering the gate dangerous."

"Like a MALP?"

"More like a radio form of sonar. It bounces through the gate ahead of the ship and sends signals back to the computer to let them know when it's safe – or if it's safe."

"Sounds reasonable." He looked over at the ship, which was hovering, and activated his radio. "_Lantica_, welcome to Earth. Go park your pretty new ship, Colonel and then come and find me."

"_Roger_," the reply was cheerful, despite the summons to Earth, and Jack was glad to hear it. Glad enough that he smiled.

"I think I'll go meet them, instead of making them come find me."

"I'll come with you, sir," she told him.

OOOOOOOOO

Like the jumpers and several other ships from different races, _Lantica_ had cloaking capabilities. As soon as she rose up through the roof of the SGC, Mitchell activated them and found the area that was used as parking for jumpers and any other small craft that might need the space. Once the little ship was on the ground, however, she disabled the cloak. It would make it easier for those who were supposed to be guarding it, after, if they could at least see it.

The Marines who were heading for that area were clearly checking it out, even when they reached a suitable distance away from it – since most of them were aware that Colonel Mitchell's last ship had carried a nasty defense shield on it that was more than capable of killing anything or anyone that was foolish enough to try and get onboard without an invitation.

They all snapped to attention when they saw Jack, Sam and Daniel (who had joined them on the way up) all heading their direction. Before they made it all the way, however, the rear hatch slid open and the occupants all came filing out, Mitchell and the others dressed in the regulation Atlantis uniform and Teal'c wearing the traditional garb of a First Prime – without the ceremonial armor.

"Colonel… that is a fine looking ship," Jack told her by way of greeting.

Melony smiled, pleased and proud.

"I agree."

"_Lantica_?" Daniel asked, curiously. Sam had told him the name as they'd been walking up.

She shrugged.

"It was the best I could come up with on short notice."

"She got the idea from _me_," McKay told them, smugly.

"And that's the best you could come up with?" Jack asked.

Melony wasn't offended. She smiled.

"I couldn't call it _Fugliest_, Jack. She's much too pretty for that…"

He had to admit that was true.

"Let me have a quick look before we go inside," he said, more of a request than an order – but definitely asking whether or not the ship had a shield to keep him from going over and taking a peek.

Mitchell's smile broadened.

"Go ahead."

While Jack – and McKay – headed back toward the ship, Melony greeted Daniel and Sam with hugs, while they both greeted Teal'c and the others with a little more restraint.

"So what's going on?" she asked Sam. "Why did we get called?"

"The Tok'ra contacted us a couple of days ago," Carter replied. "One of their ships picked up on a distress call that was originating from one of the far flung planets that they call Irila. When they arrived to investigate, they found the entire population decimated and every building in rubble."

"Are you serious?" Sheppard asked, frowning. "What could do something like that?"

"Wraith," Ronon said.

Sam shook her head.

"We don't think so. Even if some had managed to escape the Pegasus system this isn't their handiwork. The population wasn't gone, and it wasn't fed upon. They were all dead."

"A system lord we might have missed?" Teal'c guessed.

Sam shrugged.

"We thought it was something that should be looked into…"

It was clear that she hadn't made her mind up, yet, but also pretty apparent that she thought there was a good chance that was the case.

Melony nodded, feeling Talon already starting to mull possibilities – and a thrill of anger that was all his at the thought of one of the system lords escaping them.

"We should," she agreed.


	9. Chapter 9

Before they could discuss it further, Jack and Rodney returned – and McKay was positively beaming with smug pride. Which told Mitchell immediately that Jack had had nothing but good things to say about _Lantica_ – and hadn't been able to keep from mentioning them even with Rodney around to hear them.

"How does she fly?" he asked as soon as they'd reached the group.

"The little I've had a chance to check her out, she's smooth as glass."

Which was true – so far.

"I took the liberty of adding him to _Lantica's_ recognition program," Rodney told her, knowing she would have suggested it eventually and wasn't going to be upset that he'd done it without asking.

Sure enough, Melony just nodded.

"Don't get any ideas, though, _General_…" she warned him with a slight smile. "Shakedown cruise is still mine."

Jack's answering smile was broader – and he put his arm companionably over her shoulder, turning them away from the ship and toward the mountain.

"I outrank you, _Colonel_."

"Want to fight Teal'c over it?" she asked.

Jack scowled, looking over at his friend, who was still a lot bigger than he was, and shrugged nonchalantly.

"I suppose not. It's only fair you get the first ride."

"How nice of you to see things my way."

"Smart ass."

As they headed into the mountain, however, the mood turned a little more sober.

"Carter tell you about Irila?"

"Just the bare bones," Sheppard replied. "The Tok'ra didn't have any kind of leads?"

Jack shook his head.

"All we can think of is system lord," he admitted. "But that doesn't mean that's what it is. It really doesn't sound like a Wraith MO, does it?"

They knew the Wraith better than he did, after all, so he was willing to cede to their experience with the creatures.

"It does not," Teyla agreed. "Not if the humans were not fed upon – or taken. The Wraith have no reason for wholesale slaughter of such a magnitude."

"What if they were trying to make a point?" Daniel asked as they entered the conference room outside his office.

"That's not how they'd do it," Sheppard said, sitting down in one of the chairs and sniffing hopefully at an insulated pot that was placed on the table near a small stack of coffee cups. Sure enough, it was coffee and not water, and he started pouring.

"He's right, Jack," Melony agreed. "They'd never waste that much food – as blunt as that sounds."

"I can't see a Goa'uld doing something so brash, either, though," Daniel told them, watching Sheppard dole out the coffee. It was much later in Colorado than it was on Atlantis, but he'd never turn down a cup of coffee if he had the chance to get one. "Seems to me that if one escaped the carnage and is trying to rebuild, he – or she – would stay low key until she – or he – was ready to bring the fight to you."

"There is no one with that kind of power," Teal'c said. "None of the Goa'uld that were left alive have the initiative to attempt something so bold – or foolish."

Since Mitchell had seated herself between Jack and John, she found herself with the first cup of coffee Sheppard had poured, and despite the conversation, she couldn't disguise the enjoyment of the first sip.

"Your _ship_ has a coffee pot," Jack pointed out, amused but hiding it fairly well.

"And it wasn't done making when we arrived."

"It's early for us, General," Sheppard reminded him.

"Is there a Tok'ra here?" Teal'c asked. "You must have received your information from one of-"

"Dad's here," Sam interrupted with a slight smile. It was always nice when he came to visit – even when it was for something serious. "He should be joining us any time. I sent for him when you arrived."

"I'm here," a new voice said from the doorway. They all looked up, and Jacob Carter smiled a greeting to Teal'c and Mitchell – who were the only two he really knew. He'd seen McKay a time or two in the past, but hadn't socialized with him – not that McKay was really that much fun to socialize with at any rate. "It's good to see you, Colonel. You too, Teal'c."

Teal'c gave the elder Carter a slight bow – his most formal greeting – and Mitchell awarded Jacob a smile, unwilling to set her coffee down to get up and shake hands. She didn't know him all that well, and hadn't seen him in a very long time, but he was the one responsible for her meeting and blending with Talon – which was probably one of the best things that had ever happened to her.

_Probably?_

She smiled, and took another sip of her coffee, wishing she'd had some breakfast to go with it.

_You don't seem too worried about the possibility of a new system lord, Hot Shot_

I'm not.

_Don't get too cocky. If there's a Goa'uld out there, we need to nip him or her in the bud before he or she has a chance to cause any trouble_

"Colonel?" Jacob had said something, but Melony hadn't been paying attention. She jerked her attention from Talon and her coffee and gave him an apologetic look.

"Sorry, Jacob. What did you say?"

He smiled, amused rather than annoyed.

"I asked you if you'd gone over the information I brought…?"

"Not yet," she told him. "Do _you_ think it was a Goa'uld?"

The Tok'ra shrugged, sitting down beside Sam, who welcomed him with a smile.

"I honestly don't think so, but I can't think of anyone else it can be."

"Did you ask the Asgard?" Rodney asked, unwilling to be left out of the conversation. He frowned when everyone looked over at him, jumping immediately to defensive. "They might know if there is someone new out there we need to be aware of…"

Jacob shook his head.

"We haven't seen much of the Asgard, lately."

Jack frowned, realizing that they hadn't, either.

Melony caught the look.

"They haven't been by here, either?"

"No. Not for a while."

"They probably don't need anything," Daniel said. "They usually only come by when _we're_ in danger or when _they_ need something. We have the weapon in Antarctica, and the new shield on the gate, so we haven't had much trouble lately, Melony's Jaffa keep peace fairly well, so neither has anyone else."

"Tell that to the Irilians," Jacob reminded him.

"So what _did_ happen there?" Melony asked, her mind no longer focused on coffee or symbiote. "Tell us about the place."

"They're one of the planets we settled right after the system lords were vanquished," Jacob told them. "Small, but because of the location, it made a good place to work on some new ship designs and materials for different drives and other systems that we were working on."

"Like what?" McKay asked, curiously.

Jacob shrugged.

"New alloys, shielding components – basically what we needed in order to get from here to there quicker and more safely."

"Did they have any defensive or offensive capabilities on this planet?" Sheppard asked.

_A very good question,_ Talon approved.

"A small fleet of fast ships and a weapons platform based in the mountains on the north pole," Jacob replied, soberly. "It was decimated and what little we found of the strike ships would fit in this room."

"And no one left alive to tell you who did it?" Teyla asked.

"No. And no prisoners taken, either." Jacob looked around the room. "As far as we can tell, whoever did this killed everyone. They alloys that were being developed are gone – but there isn't any indication that the shielding or other system research has been touched."

Teal'c wasn't the only one to frown.

"So whoever did it just wanted the alloys?" Melony asked.

Jacob shrugged.

"That's all that's missing."

"Who would do that?" Rodney asked, clearly as confused as the rest of them. "Metal is the cheapest and easiest thing in the universe to find."

"We should probably go find them and ask them," Sheppard said.

Everyone in the room looked over at Mitchell, who nodded.

"I agree."


	10. Chapter 10

Jack nodded.

"_Daedalus_ is a couple of days out and on her way back here. You guys can go check the damage done and report back if you run into anything that might give us a better idea of what we're facing."

"Or we can leave right away with _Lantica_…" Mitchell pointed out.

He looked over at her.

"Does _Lantica_ have hyper drives?"

Melony wasn't the only one to shake her head.

"Sub light only. She's too small for that kind of energy output. But she'll fit through a Stargate."

Jacob looked over.

"_Lantica_?"

"Her new ship," McKay told him before Melony could.

"It goes through the Stargates?" he asked. "Like the Puddle Jumpers?"

She nodded.

"It's a good design, so we stole it."

"And _gate_ travel is a lot faster than even hyperdrive," Rodney added.

"There isn't a gate on Irila," he told them.

"There must be one in the area." McKay wasn't ready to give up on taking _Lantica_ just yet – and really, Mitchell wasn't, either.

"We can find the closest one to your planet and use sublight the rest of the way," she said.

"It'd be faster than waiting for _Daedalus_," Sheppard agreed.

"Depending on how far away the nearest gate is," Rodney qualified, looking over at Jacob, questioningly.

Carter shrugged, thinking it over – or maybe having a quick discussion with his symbiote.

"It'd be faster through the gate, probably," he conceded. "But probably not all that safe – not if the people who destroyed those other ships are still in the area. You're going to want a bit more firepower than whatever your little ship can bring to bear."

McKay bristled at his choice of words.

"Her little ship has the same firepower _Daedalus_ does," he snapped. "Only slightly scaled down to fit the smaller stature of the craft."

Jacob started to say something, but Sam interrupted.

"He's right, dad," she agreed. "We designed _Lantica_ to be a first class scout ship. Which includes the possibility of weapons exchange as you well know."

The agreement was grudging, but he did nod.

"You shouldn't go alone, though."

"We can cloak," Melony told him. "We're not going looking for trouble, we're just going to go to check it out."

"We'll be fine," McKay said, shortly, still stinging at having _Lantica's_ safety questioned.

Jack looked over at Mitchell, the question in his expression even though he didn't verbalize it. She nodded.

"We'll be fine," she echoed. "If it's a would be system lord then we need to put a stop to things before anyone else gets hurt."

"And if it's something or someone else?"

"Then we put a stop to that, too," Ronon said, speaking up.

"You'll wait and hook up with _Daedalus_," Jack replied, not looking at Ronon but at Mitchell and then Teal'c.

"If it's not a Goa'uld," Melony told him, "we'll wait for _Daedalus_."

She was willing to take on any Goa'uld – anytime – and there was definitely something personal in that, but an unknown was another matter entirely.

_Not to mention if we find a previously unknown we need to make sure we live to tell about it,_ Talon pointed out.

That, too.

Jack nodded, accepting her word, and looked at the entire group, now.

"What kind of equipment did you bring with you?"

"Basic stuff," Melony replied.

"More guns than clothes," McKay pointed out. "And not much for food, so we're going to need to raid your stores for the trip."

Sam smirked but didn't comment on the fact that McKay had been the one to mention food. Of course, from the amused expressions on those around the table who knew him best she was pretty sure they'd all noticed.

It was a measure of how much Jack had thawed when it came to McKay that he didn't comment on it, either. Instead he just nodded.

"We can do that."

"Did you have breakfast?" Daniel asked, looking at his watch. He knew the difference in time from Earth and Atlantis and had realized that they had practically been pulled out of their beds to come at Jack's call. Not that any of them were complaining, but he was surprised he hadn't heard any stomachs grumbling.

"We got up early," Melony admitted. Of course, she didn't admit just how early it had been.

"We can eat after we've had a chance to go through the armory," Sheppard said, looking over at Mitchell, who nodded her agreement. They'd brought their primary weapons, but with an unknown it wasn't such a bad idea to have more weapons with them – and there was a handy little compartment on _Lantica_ to put it all in until they were needed.

"And other supplies," she added.

"With more than just you and Talon there are more mouths to feed," Sam pointed out. "Good thing it's bigger than the jumpers."

"We'll split you up," Jack said. "McKay, you and Carter make sure the ship's ready for anything you might run into – I want video set up, too, so we can get recordings of anything you guys see. Sheppard, you, Teyla and Teal'c get tac vests, weapons and any ordinance you think you'll need for the trip. Ford, you and Dex go figure out what else you'll need besides weapons."

"And me?" Melony asked, fairly certain she knew what was coming.

"You're going to meet with me and Jacob and we're going to look over what information the Tok'ra managed to salvage from the planet. You can fill the others in on the way there."


	11. Chapter 11

It eventually took them several hours to get on the way. Supplies were gathered – as well as weapons and spare clothing – and the ship was checked out thoroughly by McKay and Carter to see how she'd weathered her first trip through the Stargate. Not surprisingly, _Lantica_ was given the green light and was loaded with the purloined equipment. Then, over a very satisfying breakfast – including several cups of coffee – their course was figured out and finally uploaded into the ship's computer.

"We _could_ do it all manually," McKay explained to Sheppard and anyone else who would listen. "But we don't _have_ to, and it's easier this way."

"Not to mention safer," Carter agreed. "If something happens and you're being chased by someone – or _something_ – _you_ might make a mistake dialing. The computer won't."

She ignored the looks they all gave her – looks that plainly said _they'd_ never make such a mistake, no matter who was chasing them – and continued entering figures into Rodney's laptop.

"Are we ready to go?" Jack asked them a little while later, once they'd all finished eating.

"_We_?" Melony asked.

He shrugged.

"Figure of speech. Are _you_ ready to go?"

She knew, though, that he really _wanted_ to go. Not only to see what was going on on the other side of their area of space, but because he hated missing out on taking _Lantica_ on her shakedown – no matter how serious the reason for going.

"We're ready."

The others nodded and as a group they all headed for the surface once more.

"I really _should_ go with you…" Jacob told Melony as they walked toward the back of the group.

Since it was something that they'd already discussed in Jack's office no more than a couple of hours ago, Mitchell knew he was only partially serious. But she also knew he really was torn between going with her and her group and returning to the rest of the Tok'ra to apprise them of her actions – and gather their own ships to join _Lantica_ and _Daedalus_.

"We might need the back up," Melony reminded him.

"Not to mention this was _your_ idea in the first place…" Jack pointed out. He wasn't enamored of the idea of Mitchell going on her own, although he'd been talked into the idea by both of them – and Melony's repeated promise that she wasn't going to do anything brash on the off chance that she and her ship found whoever was responsible for the sacking of Irila.

"It was just a thought," Jacob mumbled.

OOOOOOOOOO

The trip was going to take them two stargates and one long jaunt between them that would get them to their destination in a little over 24 hours. A long time to spend in a little ship, no matter how nice it was. Ronon had brought along a whetstone to occupy his time. The rest of them would have to make due with whatever was available.

They left Earth through the Stargate, emerging onto a barren wasteland of a planet that was cold and windy and several hours from their next destination. Once they'd left the planet itself, Mitchell swiveled in her pilot's seat and turned to face the others.

"The information Jacob gave me is a little more specific than we got in our initial briefing," she told them once she was sure she had everyone's attention. "But not too much. He did tell me, however, that he doesn't think this is the first time this has happened."

"Other planets have been decimated?" Teyla asked.

Melony shook her head.

"No, but the Tok'ra have lost several ships without any trace except an occasional distress signal that came far too late."

Sheppard frowned from his position in the chair beside hers.

"What about the Jaffa?" he asked both her and Teal'c. "Have you lost any ships?"

Teal'c shook his head.

"We have not – as far as I am aware."

"Then maybe it's someone who has something against the Tok'ra?" Ford asked.

Melony shrugged.

"Jaffa colonies aren't as far flung as Irila is," she pointed out. "We pulled them in a little when we started consolidating."

"So whoever it is might not have reached the Jaffa worlds yet?" Ronon asked, looking up from the knife he was sharpening.

"Right."

"Of course, Jaffa are much better fighters than the Tok'ra," McKay added. "It could be whoever it is might be avoiding them on purpose."

"What of the Mok world?" Teyla asked. "Are you not concerned that they are in danger?"

Melony shook her head again.

"They're fine."

It would take a lot to get through the Jaffa guarding the Mok, after all. And that was assuming whoever it was they were looking for was even interested in the Mok – or even knew what a Mok _was_, for that matter.

"What about _Lantica_?" Ford asked. "You're not worried about making her into a target?"

"Whoever comes after us is in for a huge surprise," Rodney said, confidently, before Mitchell could even respond. "_Lantica_ is better than any Tok'ra ship – probably better than any ship built."

Of course, Rodney had been involved with her building, so he was probably a bit biased, but it was a lot better than having him in a perpetual state of panic, so she didn't even bother to correct him. Besides, _Talon_ agreed with him.

"I'm not worried about _Lantica_," Melony agreed. "We can cloak, and while she's no faster than sublight, she's more agile than a lot of ships are. We'll be fine."

"Are we even certain that we are going to find any sign of those who attacked Irila?" Teyla asked. "What if they have gone into hiding – or are biding their time until they find another suitable target?"

Sheppard shrugged, not at all concerned.

"We'll just have to figure out a way to lure them out…"

Teyla frowned.

"How will we find out what the right bait is?"

That was something they'd have to wait and figure out, they knew.


	12. Chapter 12

"Seriously, how many of those do you _have_?"

Ronon looked over at McKay with a slight smirk, and ran his whetstone once more over the blade of the slim dagger that he was sharpening. The latest of at least a dozen knives that he'd sharpened during the first three hours of their trip. The noise echoed through the small ship, but unlike McKay, Melony actually found it to be somewhat soothing and restful. Of course, Rodney had never sharpened a knife in his life, most likely, so that could have something to do with it.

"Are you going to move, or what?" Sheppard and McKay had been playing a game of chess on one of Rodney's laptops, and from the annoying noises that McKay had been making; John was giving a good show of it.

Not surprising. He's a military man and trained in tactics. Chess isn't exactly the same, but it's close enough

"Don't rush me," Rodney snapped. "I'm having trouble concentrating."

There was a soft snort from the seat next to hers, and Mitchell looked over at Ford, who had taken the copilot seat when John had joined Rodney in the rear area of _Lantica_. She'd thought he'd dozed off, cradled in the rich leather seat that molded itself to the person sitting in it, but apparently not.

"Maybe you'd have less trouble if you weren't _losing_."

McKay scowled.

"I'm not losing. I'm just getting you where I want you."

"In front of your king with all of my forces?"

Another snort from Ford and Melony couldn't stop her own snicker as well. Which earned them both a sour look from McKay.

"Cute."

Sheppard gave him an innocent look, and started to say something when there was an urgent beep coming from the control panel in front of Mitchell.

"What's that?" Ford asked, as everyone else looked over as well.

Melony frowned as she looked down. The readout was still new enough to her that it took a moment for her to figure out what she was seeing.

"Contact."

Sheppard stood up and tapped Ford's shoulder, silently telling him that he wanted the chair he was sitting in. The Lieutenant stood up without objection and Sheppard sat down just as Mitchell brought up the HUD. A goodly distance away – proving the impressive range of the sensors on _Lantica_ – there was a ship.

"What is it?" Teyla asked.

McKay had been looking over Mitchell's shoulder, and he reached over and tapped a blinking light. The HUD showed a little more detail, and he made a curious noise.

"It's a ship."

"The ones we're looking for?" Ronon asked.

"If so then we're wasting our time," Rodney replied. "It's completely dead in space – and there's no sign of any life on board."

Melony had just read the same thing and had already put her hands back on the controls of the ship, turning off the automatic pilot.

"Everyone get belted in," she told them. "Just in case it's a trick."

"They can't _trick_ the sensors," Rodney replied as everyone moved back to the jump seats except him.

"We don't know that," Melony said, looking over her shoulder at him. "Go sit down."

He harrumphed, but he knew her well enough to know that she wasn't going to let him win this one. He went and sat down and buckled himself in, but was straining against the harness in order to see around her and watch what was going on.

"How do you want to handle this?" Sheppard asked her.

"We don't have many choices," she pointed out. "We'll go up and check it out."

"And keep our eyes peeled for any kind of ambush…"

"Exactly."

OOOOOOOOOO

"It appears to be a derelict…" Teal'c said a short time later.

The big Jaffa wasn't looking over Mitchell's shoulder, he was looking at McKay's laptop, which the astrophysicist had hooked into the HUD so he wouldn't have to strain to see what was going on.

"He's right," Rodney said, looking down as well, and then up toward the HUD. "There doesn't seem to be any power."

"No chance that they're faking it?" Sheppard asked – which was exactly what Mitchell was going to ask.

McKay shook his head.

"They'd still have _power_ – it just wouldn't be distributed." He looked back down at his laptop, pressing a couple of keys. "It's dead in the water. So to speak."

The derelict was a lot bigger than _Lantica_. Compared to the little ship it was a great brute of a craft – much like Daedalus in that respect, although not as big as that ship. It also had a large hole in the port side middle area of the ship that made the chances of the whole thing being a trick of some sort much slimmer.

"Wow…" McKay had unbelted himself and was once more standing behind Mitchell's chair looking over her shoulder. "What happened?"

"It looks like someone – or something – blew a hole in it."

Rodney shook his head.

"There aren't any scorch marks or any other signs of a battle. The hole isn't near any power area on any ships I've ever seen, so that rules out a blow out from internal power disruption."

"You don't know that for sure, Rodney," Sheppard told him.

"It's a _well educated_ theory."

"We should check it out…"

Mitchell shook her head.

"That ship doesn't have atmosphere or life support and we don't have environmental suits. We'll get what samples we can, take as much video as we can and then get back on course."

"But what if this was done by the same people or thing that attacked Irila? We need to check it out."

"It's not going anywhere, Rodney. We can come back."

"You're not at all curious about what happened here?"

Melony scowled.

"Of course I am, but there's nothing we can do here."

"She's right, Rodney," Sheppard told him. "Whoever was on that ship are either dead or escaped to somewhere else. They don't need our help."

He made another displeased noise, but knew they were right and that there wasn't anything he could do. He sat back down and picked up his laptop once more, determined to get as much information about the derelict – and what might have happened to it – as he could before Mitchell insisted it was time to get back on course.


	13. Chapter 13

The little ship continued its course, hurtling through space while her occupants whiled away the long and drawn out hours in their own ways. McKay was lost in his laptop, looking through the readouts of the scans he'd taken of the derelict ship until Mitchell was sure he had to know all the facts by heart. Which she supposed might have been the whole idea, really. She'd glanced through them as well, trusting the fact that Talon had an outstanding memory and would be able to remember anything pertinent if something came up. Sheppard had once more given up the copilot seat – this time to Ronon – and was in the back of the ship with Teal'c, Teyla and Ford. At the moment they were playing Rummy, but Mitchell knew they'd been playing UNO earlier – she'd joined them at that time and had left the ship on automatic pilot. Until she'd ended up with more than half the deck in her hand three hands in a row and had finally admitted that UNO wasn't her strong suit and had slunk away back to her seat – and a cup of fresh coffee.

Beside her Ronon was dozing. The Satedan had been on the run long enough to know that when there was a chance to sleep it was a good idea to take it. Mitchell was preoccupied with a book she was reading or she might have been napping as well.

_You don't need the sleep as much as he does_ Talon pointed out.

It's still a good way to pass the time.

_So is reading. Hurry up and turn the page…_

Since she had absolutely zero interest in the book and was only reading it because _he_ wanted them to, she did what he said, trusting that if something interesting eventually came up, he'd let her know.

_Peasant_

She ignored that. And also ignored the urge to shut the book and leave him hanging. Mainly because he'd just annoy her until she relented anyway. He snorted in amusement and she found herself reading along with him once more, despite her lack of interest. It was a good way to pass the time.

OOOOOOOO

A gentle beep pulled her away from the last chapter of the book. Ronon opened an eye but didn't move his head from where he had it pillowed against the leather headrest of the copilot seat, and Rodney – who had finally dozed off as well – jerked awake with a snort and a yawn.

"We're there?" he asked, looking down at his laptop, which he'd set on the floor at his feet when he'd found himself falling asleep earlier.

"Last Stargate," Mitchell confirmed. "We'll be there in half an hour or so…"

"About time…" Ronon said, moving now to stretch out legs that had been in one position for way too long.

The others were coming forward to look over her shoulder at the view screen, which was showing an extremely large planet in the distance. It was almost completely green, and even from the distance they were at, they could all see thick clouds, proving there was some kind of atmosphere.

"Looks inviting," Sheppard noted, leaning on the back of Ronon's chair.

"If you're a twelve foot dragonfly," Rodney said, not even looking up from his laptop to bother with the scenery. "It's mostly swamp, with a very high concentration of oxygen in the air that allows the creatures there to grow to enormous size."

"Like in dinosaur times?" Melony asked, looking with interest as the planet grew in the screen.

"Something like that."

"Why would the Ancients put a Stargate on a planet with dinosaurs?" Ford asked.

McKay shrugged.

"Who knows? Maybe they planned to come back later and see if they'd evolved into something more like us. _We_ did, after all."

Mitchell was watching the HUD, waiting for the ship's sensors to find the Stargate so she could begin descent. A moment later, there was another beep, and this time a blinking light on the display caught her attention.

"Stargate's at the southern pole. Better get buckled in, guys," she warned. "With atmosphere this thick it might get bumpy."

Of course, _Lantica_ was designed for reentry, so it probably wasn't really necessary, but better safe than sorry was a good motto to live by. The others all sat down and buckled themselves in, while Melony secured her coffee cup in a holder and took the controls once more.

"Watch out for those fireflies," Sheppard muttered.

She didn't see any, but there really wasn't a lot of chance that she was going to see much of anything as fast as they were going. The entry into the planet's atmosphere was as smooth as glass – more or less – but the heavier air gave them tremendous speed, which she didn't bother to slow.

The DHD slid out of its hiding space, and Mitchell brought up the gate adrress on the display in front of Ronon.

"Dial it up, will you?" she asked, not wanting to take her hands off the controls. She didn't see any large mountains – and the HUD and sensors weren't showing any – but just in case one suddenly jumped into her flight path, she wanted to have her attention on what she was doing.

He grunted and dialed the Stargate before they even saw it, and a moment later she angled the ship down and slowed their speed.

"This planet is a lot older than Earth…" Rodney murmured, looking down at his laptop. Of course, it was habit with him to look around places he was visiting, and since his computer was locked into _Lantica's_ sensors, he was more than capable of getting readings of everything she was recording. "I mean… a _lot_."

"So?" Ford asked. "No dinosaurs?"

"He's saying there could have been dinosaurs, and people and right back to dinosaurs again," Sheppard told him, looking over Rodney's shoulder at the readings.

"That's pretty old."

"We're going in," Mitchell said, interrupting the conversation as she turned the little ship and headed for the Stargate. A moment later they were out the other side, and the planet they were now on was a lot different than the one they'd just vacated.

"Cloak!" Rodney shouted, but she'd already sent the ship that particular command. The Stargate was on a large pedestal – an alter of sorts, really – and had been surrounded by a huge crowd of people, all of whom looked shocked at the sudden appearance of the ship that had only been seen for a moment before it apparently vanished into thin air.

"I thought this place was deserted?" Melony asked, looking over at Rodney as she gained altitude and headed for open space.

"It's _supposed_ to be," Rodney told her.

"It is not," Teyla said.

"Well, no." Rodney was immediately defensive, although it was hardly his fault that people were now living on a planet that he'd never even been to. "It's supposed to be," he repeated, lamely.

Just as they broke out of the planet's gravity and they all felt _Lantica's_ artificial gravity kick in to compensate, there was another warning, this time one that was louder and far more persistent.

"_Contact_!" Rodney shouted – unnecessarily.

"I see it," Melony told him.

The ship was large and sleek, and hovering against the light of another nearby planet it looked rather ominous.

"It's Asgard," McKay said, looking up from his laptop.

_Lantica_ had decided the same thing. The HUD displayed an outline of the ship and the memory banks supplied the class and size in a rush of information that Melony didn't have time to read – even if she'd wanted to. The Asgard ship had clearly noticed them – even cloaked like they were – because it was turning and coming right at them.

"Watch out!"

Again Rodney reacted to what hi laptop was telling him. And again, Melony didn't need the warning. The Asgard ship fired, and Mitchell evaded, banking Lantica so hard that it was probably a good thing everyone was securely buckled in. The energy bolt missed them, and the ship charged weapons without being asked – one of the fine touches Rodney had put on her. She wouldn't fire, though, unless someone actually pushed the button, and Melony wasn't ready to fire on an Asgard ship.

Not yet.

"What are you waiting for?" Ronon asked. "Kill them."

The Asgard ship fired again.


	14. Chapter 14

_Lantica_ dodged the Asgard energy beam as easily the second time as she had the first. Compared to the larger ship, she was far more maneuverable, and would turn on a dime – so to speak – if required to. With Mitchell at the controls, using Talon's reflexes where necessary, the little ship was even more responsive, and as long as it was one on one and nothing else came into play, they could do the cat and mouse thing all day.

"Why are they firing at _us_?" McKay asked, sounding just a little panicked as he looked back down at his laptop.

"Why aren't we firing back?" Ronon asked, curiously. He'd taken his cue from Melony, who wasn't showing much emotion – and certainly no fear – and had decided that they weren't in too much danger just then.

"The Asgard aren't our enemies," Melony replied.

"They're shooting at us."

And really, it was that simple in Ronon's world; if they're firing at you, they're the enemy.

Mitchell couldn't afford that view all the time.

"Use that mirror shield thing," Sheppard suggested.

The _mirror shield thing_ was something McKay had worked up on his own – without discussing it with Mitchell until it was ready to be installed into _Lantica's_ systems. He'd managed to get his hands on one of the crystals that she and SG-2 had found so long ago and inlayed the properties of the crystal to form a special shield for _Lantica_. A shield that would gather the energy of a blast and shoot it right back at the antagonist in the form of a pure beam of energy that used the crystal energy relays to double and sometimes even triple the strength of the return volley. It _probably_ wouldn't take the Asgard ship out, but it would definitely knock them back a bit and make them think twice about continuing their attack.

"It might destroy them," Melony replied. She wasn't going to risk that. The last thing the Jaffa needed was a war with the Asgard over a misunderstanding. And this _had_ to be a misunderstanding.

"We do not know for certain that there are Asgard on board the ship," Teal'c said, which caused Melony to actually turn around and look at him in surprise.

She hadn't considered that someone else might have taken over the Asgard ship – but Teal'c had. Of course, he was about a hundred years older than she was, so he was a bit more experienced in some areas than she was.

"One way to find out."

Before they could be fired on again, Mitchell pressed the communications board and opened frequencies on every channel and range they had.

"Asgard vessel," she said – using her own voice and not Talon's, since it might cause an automatic continuation in the attack if the Asgard heard a Goa'uld-like voice on the radio. "This is Colonel Melony Mitchell of the Earth ship _Lantica_. Cease fire or I will be forced to defend myself."

"We're not _really_ Earth based…" McKay muttered under his breath.

Mitchell ignored him and waited for a reply, not taking the time to tell Rodney that she'd been born on Earth and not Atlantis, so she'd always be Earth based.

"Asgard ship is standing down…" Rodney suddenly said, sounding surprised that it had been that simple. "Weapons are no longer charged."

A moment later there was a slight amount of static on the communications line and they all clearly heard the voice of what definitely sounded like an Asgard.

"_Colonel Mitchell. This is Commander Karis of the Asgard vessel _Nalose_. There are no Jaffa planets in this area. What are your intentions?"_

Mitchell scowled. It wasn't the friendliest of greetings.

_Neither was having them shoot at us unprovoked_

"My intentions are to get where I'm going without having my ass shot off, Commander," Mitchell replied, less than diplomatically. "Aside from that, it's none of your business."

There was a long pause from the Asgard ship.

"That was a little abrupt, don't you think?" Sheppard asked.

Melony shrugged, but it was Ronon who answered.

"Saves time."

Before Mitchell could reply, Commander Karis came back on the line.

_"Colonel Mitchell, you are in the area of space of a planet protected by the Asgard. It would be in your best interest to leave this area immediately."_

"Like we want to stay?" Rodney asked, annoyed.

Equally annoyed – and even worse, being bombarded by Talon's annoyance as well – Melony keyed her communications equipment once more.

"We're not planning on staying, Commander Karis," she told him. "But if you fire on my ship again, you're going to be walking home."

"That's smooth…" McKay said sarcastically as Mitchell turned her ship and entered the coordinates for Irila. A moment later the sublight engines fired and they left, the Asgard ship looming in the background until they were out of sight.

"I was under the impression that the Asgard aren't that aggressive a race…" Sheppard said once they were away.

"They're not, usually," Melony replied, shrugging. "I've never had a problem with them before today."

"Nor have I," Teal'c agreed.

"Something must be going on," Ronon said.

Again Mitchell shrugged.

"We already knew that. Hopefully we'll find out what it is once we get where we're going."

OOOOOOOOOO

"This could be a problem…"

It was only about twenty minutes later, and the computer had just warned them that they were approaching their destination when another alarm had warned of something a bit more sinister.

"Another Asgard ship?" Ford asked, looking over Melony's shoulder at the HUD. "Or the same one?"

"Different," Sheppard said, pointing. "This one isn't as big."

"Carries more weaponry, though…" Rodney pointed out. "We need to be careful."

Melony nodded, especially since Talon had just told her the same thing. She keyed her communications and brought _Lantica_ out of cloak mode.

"This is a Tok'ra planet, though, and not an Asgard protected one," she said. "Time to see if we can find out what's going on…"


	15. Chapter 15

"We're being hailed."

Rodney's voice was a bit tense, as if he expected the Asgard ship to fire on the rather than hail them, but that was definitely understandable.

"Got it," she said, opening the communications channel.

_"This is the Asgard ship _Torodi_. Identify yourself."_

"Colonel Melony Mitchell, Earth vessel Lantica."

There was a slight pause – and she was pretty sure that whoever was on the Asgard ship was speculating about why she might be there.

_Now is when they're going to fire at us if they're going to,_ Talon told her.

Yeah.

They were ready, though, and so was _Lantica_.

The Asgard wasn't, however.

"_Why are you in Tok'ra space, Colonel Mitchell?"_ came a response only a moment later.

"I was going to ask you the same thing, _Torodi_. We can claim jurisdiction. _You're_ the one trespassing."

Ronon looked over and she smiled.

"Talon's technically Tok'ra."

"I thought that made you a system lord…?"

"_That's_ not what makes her a system lord," McKay told him.

"I'll explain later," she said. "It's not that complicated."

He made a low grumbling noise that clearly said he didn't believe that, and turned to look at the Asgard ship once more.

After another slight hesitation, the Asgard ship answered them.

"_We're looking for someone."_

"Rodney, have you scanned the planet below us, yet?"

He nodded, looking down at his laptop – and ignoring the fact that Sheppard was looking over his shoulder.

"There are no people down there at all. There are a few Asgard, however, in one of the buildings on the east coast of the main continent."

"Just there?" Sheppard asked.

"Yeah." He looked up. "That's a little odd, isn't it? They have sensors that are at least as good as ours. What are they doing down there?"

Melony frowned.

_Why don't we find out?_

She pressed the communications pad once more.

"_Torodi_, who are you looking for? Or _what_ are you looking for? This planet was attacked a few days ago and there isn't anything down there you should be interested in."

"Unless they want to find out what kind of alloys the Tok'ra were working on…" McKay muttered.

"They don't need to scavenge," Melony disagreed.

"Which doesn't mean that they're _not_."

Ronon grunted agreement, even though he probably hated the fact that he was agreeing with Rodney.

_"We are aware of the incident, Colonel Mitchell."_ There was another pause, this one so long that Melony wondered if they were finished speaking – even though it was an odd place to end a conversation. Especially if you were trying to make sure you weren't going to be accused of perpetuating the crime. Finally, though, the Asgard spoke again. "_Please meet us on the planet surface at your convenience."_

"They didn't tell us _where_," Rodney said. "Which probably means they know we scanned the planet and know they're down there looking around."

"Then that is where we should meet them," Teal'c replied.

"Not all of us," Mitchell disagreed, even as she headed _Lantica_ toward the planet – and the main continent.

Rodney looked up once more.

"You don't trust them?"

She shrugged.

"Let's just say I'm a little suspicious of their motives. They really _are_ trespassing…"

Since he'd long ago learned that there was no point in arguing with her about this kind of thing – as opposed to _scientific_ things – McKay just shrugged.

"What do you want to do?" Sheppard asked.

"We're going to meet the Asgard," she said. "Some of us, anyway. Me, you, Teyla and Ronon."

"What are _we_ supposed to do?" Rodney asked, looking annoyed at being left out – and he probably was. He rarely had the chance to speak with Asgard, after all, and just because Mitchell was uncertain of how far to trust them, it didn't mean that they shouldn't at least be social.

"Watch our backs," came Ronon's reply as they started to enter the atmosphere of the planet below them and the ride became a little bumpy.

"Right. Teal'c can fly _Lantica_ and you can run the systems if something happens."

"Do you really think something will?" Teyla asked.

Melony shook her head.

"No. The Asgard aren't dumb enough to try anything – even if they wanted to."

"Starting an all out war with the Jaffa would be insane," Rodney agreed. "If they tried to to pull something with Melony, they have to know that the Jaffa will retaliate. Not to mention the Tok'ra, for that matter."

"They already fired on us once," Ford pointed out.

"Not once they knew who they were shooting at," Rodney told him.

"I still want you guys watching our backs," Melony told them as they cleared the cloud cover over the western part of the continent and headed for the ruined city that they all recognized from the images they'd seen on Earth.

OOOOOOOOO

There were several Asgard standing outside one of the few remaining buildings when they arrived. _Lantica_ landed and the rear hatch opened, but once Mitchell, Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla disembarked, the little ship went airborne once more to hover above them.

With Melony in the lead, but the others in closed ranks around her, they walked over to the waiting Asgard, all of them doing their best to ignore the scattered dead bodies all around them.

Recognize any of them?

_No_.

Talon hadn't spent much time with the Asgard before he'd blended with Melony – and even less afterward.

She didn't even bother to ask Sheppard and the others, since Ronon and Teyla were both from a place where there were no Asgard, and Sheppard hadn't heard of them until he'd joined up for the Atlantis expedition.

"Colonel Mitchell," the nearest one said as soon as they reached him – at least she assumed it was a he. "I am Liame, commander of the vessel _Torodi_."

His was the same voice that they'd been speaking with before they'd landed, so clearly he'd beamed down for the conference.

She nodded a greeting, and gestured to those with her.

"Colonel John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagin, and Ronon Dex."

The Asgard sized up Dex, and looked over at her.

"Is this your First Prime?"

"Teal'c is. He's in the ship."

Liame nodded, and then gestured to his own companions.

"Anya, Marhce, and Ares."

_Cut the crap, Hotshot,_ Talon advise. _Find out what they're doing here_

She didn't nod, but she definitely agreed.

"Why are the Asgard on Irila?"

If he was taken back by the sudden challenge, Liame didn't show it. Of course, the Asgard rarely showed too much for emotion, at any rate. He looked at those with him, and then turned back to her and the others.

"We believe we know who is responsible for this attack," he told them.

"Or rather, _what_," Ares added.


	16. Chapter 16

_Author's note: Don't forget, this is an AU, so things will be a littler different, perhaps, than what you're used to from the show._

OOOOOOO

There was a slight hesitation, but it didn't last long.

"Really?" she asked, truly interested. "Who?"

"Or what?" Ronon added.

"And _why_?" Sheppard put in, looking around at the carnage.

Liame glanced over at his companions, but turned back to the humans without hesitation.

_What do you think they're hiding_? Talon asked his host.

Good question.

More to the point, were they going to tell them? Or make up some kind of story?

_And who can ever tell when an Asgard is lying_? Talon grumbled.

"My kind have been fighting a battle with an odd and extremely dangerous enemy for a very long time, Colonel Mitchell."

"The Goa'uld?" Sheppard asked.

Liame looked up at John and shook his head.

"More dangerous than the Goa'uld – although they, too, were a serious threat at one point." He looked at Mitchell. "When you and your kind defeated the Goa'uld, the Asgard assumed we were free to focus on one enemy instead of attempting to keep the Goa'uld at bay as well as the other threat."

"But…?"

"Focusing on them only made them more of a threat."

"Just who are you talking about?" Teyla asked, curiously.

"_We_ call them the Replicators," Ares said, stepping up to stand beside Liame. "What they actually call themselves is unknown."

"Replicators?" Melony echoed.

"Bunch of walking Xerox machines?" Sheppard asked.

"They take many forms," Liame told them. "What they apparently do, though, is absorb the base materials of anything they come in contact with, assimilating it with their own properties and making it a part of them."

"What, like the Borg?" John asked, frowning.

Since Liame didn't have a clue what that was, he simply looked up at Sheppard, who shrugged.

"You know, like in _Star Trek_…" he waited for some kind of response, but when he didn't get one he shrugged again. "Never mind…"

"They don't sound human…" Melony said, making it more of a question.

"They are not. They are not even flesh and blood – or of that nature."

"Which is one of the reasons they are so dangerous," Ares put in. "They do not require nourishment – at least in the manner your kind and mine do – and they do not require breathable atmosphere."

"One of the ways they can take over a ship is to disable it – or put a hole in the hull – and simply wait for life support to fail and the people on board to suffocate," Liame told them.

"Like that ship we found on our way here…" Ronon told Mitchell, who shrugged.

"What do they want?" she asked Liame.

"We do not know. They do not communicate – at least, not with us. They attack in swarms and destroy everything around them, taking all raw material around them and using it to produce more of them."

"And stealing the technology of those they have overcome," Anya added, speaking up for the first time.

"Like the Goa'uld…" Melony pointed out.

"Except the Goa'uld desired dominance over all others," Liame said. "We do not know what it is the Replicators want."

"Has anyone tried asking them?" Teyla asked.

Her three companions all gave her looks of disbelief, but the Asgard didn't.

"Those who have encountered them and tried have not survived the encounters long enough to ask," Ares told them, seriously. "I myself have seen them and my ship only just escaped."

"And we were merely a rescue mission," Anya told them. "Not a warship."

"You think they did _this_?" Melony asked, gesturing around them.

"All signs point to it, yes."

"The Tok'ra were creating new metal alloys here," Liame said. "The Replicators are drawn to such things – as they are also drawn to technology that is new to them. They are mindless as far as we can tell, and they give no quarter."

"How do _you_ know what the Tok'ra were doing here?" Melony asked, frowning.

"And how would these Replicators know it?" Ronon asked.

"We were watching," Liame replied without any hesitation. "Perhaps the Replicators were as well."

"Did you watch what happened here?" John asked.

"We were not in the vicinity. Had we been, we would have attempted to evacuate as many people as possible."

"What do they look like?" Melony asked – for Talon, who was definitely curious.

"We have some images captured from one of the recorders on my ship," Anya told her. "We will transmit the data to yours."

Liame looked over at _Lantica_.

"Your ship is not one I have ever seen before, Colonel Mitchell. Is it new?"

"Yes."

"And knowing your resources, it is undoubtedly filled with advanced technology…"

"Undoubtedly," she agreed, unwilling to go into too much detail. Not that she didn't trust the Asgard; it was just that _Talon_ didn't trust anyone he didn't know. _Including_ the Asgard.

"That will make it a tempting target for the Replicators should they cross paths with you," the little Asgard told her. "You should be careful."

"I'm always careful."

None of the Asgard looked convinced, but then neither did anyone else. Melony just scowled.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd send those images over," she said. "I'd like to see what these things look like."

"Not to mention giving Rodney a chance to check them out, too…" Sheppard added.

She nodded.

"That's what I was thinking, too."


	17. Chapter 17

"Are you getting anything, yet?"

Rodney scowled and shook his head, ignoring the fact that everyone in the little ship was crowded around him and looking over his shoulder.

"Nothing, yet."

"Liame said they were going to-"

A beep interrupted Mitchell and everyone looked at the HUD when it suddenly came to life.

"_Colonel Mitchell…"_ the voice was Liame's. "_We are sending you the images, now."_

"He's right," McKay said, his voice taut with suppressed excitement – or maybe nervousness. "We're getting a data burst."

"This should be interesting…" Sheppard murmured, leaning against the back of Mitchell's pilot seat.

"A first look at a new _species_?" McKay asked, incredulously. "Yeah, I'd say interesting is an understatement."

"It's not like a first look at the _Mok_," Melony told him. "According to the Asgard, these things are deadly."

"Yes, yes, I was listening to your conversation." McKay waved his hand, as if that was just some kind of insignificant obstacle. "Seriously, though, if they're machines they can't be that dangerous."

"Bombs are dangerous," Ford pointed out.

"So are cars with the wrong person behind the wheel," Sheppard added.

"Not to mention space ships," Mitchell told them.

Rodney rolled his eyes.

"If they're machines-"

An image came up on the screen and they all fell silent, watching as the first thing they saw looked like an open corridor – either in a building or on a large ship.

_Looks more like a ship_, Talon commented.

"Asgard ship," McKay said at the same time. Then he fell silent as several Asgard rushed down the corridor and out of sight around a corner. A moment later, the reason for that haste came into view and there was a collective intake of breath when they all realized they were looking at a Replicator. Several of them.

"It looks like a large spider," Teyla said.

"Too large," Ronon added, and Melony could actually feel him tense.

Obviously she wasn't the only one.

"You're afraid of _spiders_?" Ford asked, incredulously.

Ronon scowled, giving the younger man a look that would have frozen a glass of water.

"I don't like them."

"I don't, either," Melony told him, looking at the image that Rodney had frozen on the screen. "Not even mechanical ones…"

It was obvious that the creature was made out of metal – or at least some kind of substance that looked like metal.

"It has to be some kind of nanite technology…" Rodney muttered to himself, mostly, as he continued looking at the Replicator with detached interest. "But how self aware is it? And where did it develop? Someone had to be the mind behind the machine…"

"Why do you say that?" Ford asked.

"Because while there are supposedly machines that can learn, there are no machines that can build themselves out of scratch."

The answer was given in a tone that plainly said that Ford should have figured that out on his own, but Melony had to admit that she hadn't considered that, either. Talon had, though, and was still thinking it through.

_Maybe the Ancients had a hand in it? We already know how much they liked to experiment with other things…_

"Might be the Ancients," Rodney said, musing more to himself still and completely unaware that he was echoing what Talon was saying to his host.

"If that were the case, does it not seem likely that there would have been indications of Replicator activity in the Pegasus system long ago?" Teal'c asked. "The Ancients have been gone a very long time, after all."

Teyla shook her head.

"I have never heard of such creatures." She looked over at Ronon. Between her years of trading for her people and _his_ years as a Runner, they'd pretty much been everywhere.

The Satedan shook his head.

"I'd have remembered something like that – even if it was just drawn on a wall somewhere…"

"Talon's been around more blocks than any of us," Melony told them. "But he says he's never even heard of them."

"Makes you wonder if the Asgard did it," John said. "They're the only ones who have seen these things before, after all. Maybe they've been trying to get their escaped science project back under control and it's finally getting the better of them…"

"If they did then they've started a whole lot of trouble," Rodney said, allowing the video to move forward so they could all watch what was quickly turning into destruction by a swarm of unrelenting mechanical spiders. There were several lasers of some sort being fired at the Replicators – presumably by the Asgard – but they weren't being stopped. For that matter, they were hardly being delayed. "These things are like locusts…"

"The Asgard are hailing us," Teal'c said, dispassionately.

"Right." Mitchell flipped the switch that brought the communications back online and immediately heard Liame's voice.

_"Colonel Mitchell. Did you receive the feed?"_

"We did," Melony told him. "It's fairly disturbing."

_"Indeed. We advise that you inform your people and the Tok'ra of what you have learned."_

"And what are they going to be doing?" Ronon asked, not caring that the Asgard would be able to hear him as well as those on the ship did.

Liame's reply wasn't colored with any emotion, but it was clear that he'd heard him.

_"We will be attempting to locate the Replicator ship before it can cause any more destruction."_

_Which sounded a lot like they still think they can get things under control,_ Talon said.

Melony agreed, but she definitely had her doubts. The Asgard were advanced, yes, but numbers meant a lot in a war, and a creature – or machine – that can duplicate itself infinitely was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

"What are we going to do?" Ford asked, quietly, almost looking like he didn't want to hear the answer.

"We need to let the others know what's going on," Melony told them. "Let's head back to Earth."

Rodney let out a breath that he probably hadn't even realized he was holding, and Sheppard couldn't help but throw a wry smile her direction. Both of them must have been expecting a different reply than that.

She scowled, and shooed them all away.

"Go get buckled in," she ordered them. "I want to leave as soon as we're ready."


	18. Chapter 18

"We should really stop by that derelict ship we found on the way here," Rodney told her as they left orbit and settled in for the trip back to Earth.

"Why?" Sheppard asked. "You already took all the readings you can, didn't you?"

"Well, yes, but when I was taking them I didn't know what I was looking for and _now_ I do – and I want to see if the ship was damaged by the Replicators or if it's something else."

"It's time we don't have," John said, looking tense. "We need to get our intel back to-"

"Yes, yes," McKay interrupted, annoyed. "I know you need to." Of course he did. Sheppard was military and always thought in that same vein. It wasn't his fault and most of the time it was a good thing – except for when it made things harder for him. "But if we stop we can get more intel to take back with-"

"We have time to stop," Melony said, interrupting them before they could start arguing – which would really make the trip home less enjoyable. "Besides, _Talon_ wants to take another look, too."

Rodney beamed and Sheppard looked annoyed. More because he'd lost the argument with McKay than because she wanted to stop, Mitchell was sure.

"What I really want to do is go over and take a look," McKay said, more to himself than to them. "We should have seen if the Asgard had any space suits or-"

"Why would the Asgard have space suits?" Ford asked.

"Why _wouldn't_ they?" Rodney countered. His face lit up, excitedly. "Better yet, we should go back to Irila and see if the Tok'ra that were living there had any. Then we-"

"We're not going back," Melony told him, rolling her eyes but not at all surprised at the request. Give him an inch and he'd take a mile if he could. She was used to it, though. "We can stop and take another look and decide if it's worth going back once we've delivered our report to Jack."

"But-"

"No buts, Rodney. John's right, too. We do need to get our intel back – otherwise this trip is nothing more than a shakedown for _Lantica_."

He scowled, but didn't argue with her, instead burying his head in his laptop and effectively shutting out the rest of them as he studied the data the Asgard had sent them – and most likely was also looking at the readings he'd managed to get from the derelict the first time they'd been there.

Ronon and Teal'c were gathered with Teyla and Ford – the Athosian and the Satedan were both hitting the Jaffa up for any more information about the Asgard that he'd share. Which, of course, was everything Teal'c knew about them. Melony was pretty sure that Teyla was more curious about the Asgard than anything, while Ronon had already decided that he didn't trust them and wanted to know about them in order to find any potential weakness.

_It's his nature,_ Talon agreed.

Settling the ship into its course for the planet that had been – and might still be – guarded by the Asgard ship _Nalose_ and her trigger-happy commander Karis, Mitchell started a pot of coffee, and then looked over at Sheppard.

"We'll go cloaked through the first Stargate," she told him. "I don't feel like being shot at again and I really don't want to make small talk."

"At least we know why he was so trigger happy," John pointed out.

"_Lantica_ is too small to be a Replicator ship," she replied.

"How do you know?" McKay asked, proving that while he wasn't inviting chit-chat, he was definitely listening on the conversations around him. "She's probably everything they'd like in a ship. New, experimental and filled with technology never seen in this system."

Now Melony scowled, and Sheppard turned his head to give him a dirty look.

"You make it sound like that's a good thing."

"What?" He gave them both an innocent look. "I didn't mean – that is to say, I'm just saying that if the Replicators are drawn to new technology, then _Lantica_ will look as tasty to them as Colonel Mitchell here looks to the Wraith."

Which earned another scowl from both of them. He went on, completely oblivious – or at least ignoring the looks rather well.

"I wonder if the Asgard have managed to catch one…?"

"A Wraith?" Sheppard asked, knowing full well what he was talking about, but also knowing just how much the question would annoy him.

Sure enough, the look Rodney shot Sheppard was completely satisfying – to both colonels.

"A _Replicator_," he clarified, knowing he didn't really need to, but unable to help himself. "If we had one to study, we'd know how they absorbed the materials they find, how they are attracted to the materials in the first place… basically everything that makes them tick."

"I don't want to know what makes them tick," Mitchell told him. "I would rather know how to stop them."

_The best reason of all to know what makes them go, Hotshot,_ Talon told her. _Then we'd be able to stop them in the most efficient manner_

"Which is why we need to know what makes them tick," Rodney pressed, not realizing that he was echoing Talon's own sentiments. "That way we'd know how to stop them."

"Is that coffee done?" Sheppard asked, changing the subject completely, because he knew it really wasn't a conversation he wanted to have with McKay. Next thing you knew, he'd be wanting to try something as foolish as catching one of the little buggers.

Distracted by the thought of a hot cup of fresh coffee, Melony was more than willing to change the subject as well. Especially since Talon wasn't hounding her about the Replicators. She reached for some paper cups that were stacked off to the side for the guests on the ship and filled one for Sheppard and herself before handing the pot and the cups back to Rodney so he could disperse the rest to those who would want a cup.

The distraction worked on McKay. By the time he brought the empty pot back to Mitchell, she and Sheppard were setting in the coordinates of the first Stargate they were going to be using. _Lantica_ was already cloaked and ready to sneak past the Asgard ship guarding the planet, so it was a relatively simple matter to enter orbit on the far side of the planet – away from the _Nalose's_ scanners and the trigger-happy commander.

They emerged on the other side of the Stargate, and resumed their primary course – which would take them by the derelict, presuming it hadn't moved or _been_ moved since they'd discovered it.

Sheppard had just leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, knowing that this was the longest and most boring part of the return journey, when a sudden shrill alarm caused him to jerk upright before he was even completely aware of what he was doing.

"What the-"

"Contact," Melony said, already activating the HUD. Before she could say anything else, and before the others in the back had done more than start forward to get their own look at what it was, two ships suddenly materialized out of nowhere.

"Who-"

"They're firing!" Rodney shouted, his eyes darting between his laptop and the HUD.

"Shields are up," Mitchell replied, calmly. The ship wasn't one she recognized – which meant it wasn't Tok'ra, Asgard or Jaffa, and it definitely wasn't Wraith or from Earth. "And we're evading."

_Lantica_ moved deftly, and the first beam missed them completely. The beam from the second ship slammed into the shields, but they held with no loss of strength.

"They're coming around again," Rodney warned, now looking at his laptop only.

"Anyone trying to talk to us?" Melony asked, already certain she knew the answer, since she was closer to the communications section that McKay was.

"No, we-"

"They're firing again," Sheppard told her.

"Brace yourselves," Mitchell snapped, sliding her hand along the control that activated _Lantica's_ best defense.

The mirror shield activated immediately, and the alien beam struck the little ship dead on, followed only a moment later by another beam from the other ship. As it was designed to, _Lantica's_ shields gathered the energy from both hits, amplified the power by using the crystal McKay had built into them, and shot beams right back out at the two attackers. Both beams struck shields, but instead of deflecting or absorbing them, the potent energy blasts ripped through their targets. In two silent – but still spectacular – fireballs, both ships shattered instantly, scattering a million pieces of rubble across the front of _Lantica's_ video screen.

"Wow…"


	19. Chapter 19

"Oh my God," Rodney said, staring out at what was left of the two ships, his face pale and his emotions showing a mixture of shock and fear. "I was right."

Ronon frowned and looked over at him.

"About what?"

"The Replicators," McKay explained. "Those had to be Replicators. They're after _Lantica_."

"You don't _know_ those were Replicators," Sheppard said. "They could have been any-"

"They weren't Asgard," Rodney interrupted. "They weren't Jaffa, Tok'ra, Tollan, or any other space faring race that we've every met in this system. I'd know. Those ships were something _I've_ never seen – and that means something new. The newest thing I know of right now are the Replicators." He drew himself up a little. "And they're after _Lantica_. They have to be."

"They're not much of a threat…" Ronon pointed out.

"No," Rodney disagreed. "They _are_. Otherwise the Asgard would have been able to deal with them long ago. It's just that _Lantica_ is much more deadly." This last was said with no small amount of pride, and Melony couldn't blame him since she felt the same way. Of course, she was also feeling the echo of Talon's pride in the little ship, too, and what he felt for _Lantica_ was even beyond what she did

"I thought they _crippled_ ships?" Ford asked. "Like that one we found. They seemed pretty serious to me."

Rodney made a dismissing motion with his hand.

"They might have been, I'm not entirely sure. The shields absorbed their beams and amplified them, so it'll take a bit to be able to tell just how much force they were trying to use. It could be that they were trying to knock out all systems and still leave the ship intact."

"That's a disturbing thought," Sheppard said.

Mitchell nodded her agreement.

"We'd better get going. I don't want to run into any more of them if we can avoid it."

"You're running from a fight?" Ronon asked, surprised.

She didn't take it personally.

"I'm making sure we survive to let others know what's going on," she told him.

"And then what?"

She shrugged.

"Maybe we go Replicator hunting…"

Ronon's answering grin was positively wolfish, but Rodney frowned.

"We should take advantage of the fact that they're after us," he told her – and to a lesser extent, the others.

"What do you mean?" John asked, frowning since he was pretty sure he already knew what he was talking about.

"They here, now," Rodney said. "We should lay a trap and catch one. That way we can study it – and them – and know what we're getting into when we go looking for them next time."

"That's a bad idea, Rodney," Sheppard said.

"I agree," Melony told them, nodding. "We need-"

_I like the idea,_ Talon put in, interrupting her with the comment, even though she was the only one that heard him.

What?

_McKay's right. We should catch one so we can take it back to Earth with us. Between him, Sam Carter and myself, we should be able to figure out what makes them tick before they really become a threat to us_

You're serious…

She knew he was; she could feel the confidence he was exuding – confidence in himself, her, and in _Lantica_.

_Definitely. We need to get these things before they become a threat to the Jaffa. Right?_

"What's he saying?" Rodney asked, curiously, knowing from the expression on her face that she was conversing with the symbiote.

"He likes the idea."

"Ha!"

"But I don't," she added, before he could get his hopes up.

_Why not?_

"Why not?" McKay asked.

"Because we don't know how many more of those ships are out there looking for us, we don't know that they even are – we might have just been in the way, or-"

"For that matter," Teyla broke in, "We do not even know for certain it was a Replicator attack. It _could_ have been some other race."

"I just told you-"

"That you believe it to have been Replicators, I know," she interrupted. "But you cannot know that for certain since today is the first time you have actually heard of these creatures."

"I know it was them," he repeated, stubbornly, certain that he was right. As he normally was. "And we should catch one."

"And take it back to Earth?" Melony asked him, allowing sarcasm to enter her voice. "Did you see the destruction of Irila?"

"We'd only take one," Rodney told her. "And we don't even need to bring it down to the planet. We can work on it in the space station – or take it to Atlantis."

"I'm not taking these things to another system," she snapped.

"We need to get back to Earth with our intel," Sheppard told him – again. "That has to be a priority here."

"We shoot them a data stream through the Stargate on the planet by where we found the derelict," Rodney suggested. "That way _they_ have what little information we have. And then we catch one of the Replicators and bring them even more intel."

"Or more Replicators," Ford said.

McKay shot him a scathing look.

"That won't happen."

"You don't know that," Melony pointed out. "How exactly are you planning on catching _one_ of those things, anyway? I saw the tape, too, you know. It looked a lot like a swarm. The last thing I want is a swarm of mechanical spiders on my ship."

Rodney held up his hand, looking smug.

"We use _Lantica's_ mini beam. Get one of the Replicator ships near enough to us and force their shields down, then snatch one right out from under their noses and blow up the ship to keep the others from coming after us."

_It's a good plan, Hotshot,_ Talon approved. _And we need to take care of these things before they become a danger to the Jaffa_

"What's he saying?" Rodney asked, looking annoyed – probably because he couldn't listen in on their conversation. McKay hated being out of the loop on anything, Melony knew.

"He still likes the idea…" she told him.

"Great!"

"But I still don't."

Sheppard looked over.

"What if they get _Lantica_?" he asked. "If they're after new technology and they somehow manage to get their hands on this ship, they're going to be even more dangerous than before…"

"They don't _have_ hands – and besides, _Lantica_ has a self destruct," Rodney reminded them all. "We blow her up before that happens."

Melony scowled and he noticed immediately.

"It won't happen, though," he added, quickly.

_We need to do this,_ Talon told her.

With pressure from inside as well as out, it was difficult for her to say no. Not to mention, she really did want to stop the Replicator problem before it affected her own people – including the Jaffa. Bad enough it had already caused the death of Tok'ra.

She sighed.

"Fine. But we're going to change the plan a bit."

McKay had been gloating, but now he stopped short.

"Change it how?"

"For one thing, instead of sending a data burst, we're going to find the closest Stargate and send Teal'c back to Earth with the information we've managed to get so far."

"Why Teal'c?" Ford asked, curiously.

"Because if something happens to us – and by us, I mean me and Talon – Teal'c can finish what we've started with the Jaffa. If we're both killed, then there's no one they'll take orders from."

_Sound thinking,_ Talon approved.

"Nothing is going to happen," McKay told her. "Do you really think I'd put myself in danger?"

She had to admit that he had a point there, but she shrugged.

"You've been wrong before, Rodney." She looked at the others. "Teyla? You're people need you, too. You shouldn't be a part of this."

The Athosian looked like she wanted to argue the point, but she nodded, instead. It was Colonel Mitchell's ship and her decision. Besides, she was right.

When Melony looked over at Ronon, he scowled before she could say anything.

"I don't have any people," he told her. "I'll stay."

She hesitated, but finally nodded.

"Me, too," John told her. "Just in case you need another pilot, for some reason…"

"You're sure?" she asked.

He smirked.

"I'd rather face a new race of metal spiders than have to go explain to General O'Neill and Elizabeth why I allowed you to go off and try this crazy plan on your own."

"She's not alone," Rodney told him. "_I'm_ here."

"Like I said…"

McKay rolled his eyes.

"Cute."

She sighed and ran her hand along the armrest of the seat she was in.

"I'm going to be really pissed if my new ship gets blown up…"

"It won't," Rodney assured her.

_Trust me_, Talon agreed.

Neither one of them made her feel any better.


	20. Chapter 20

"She did _what_?"

Teal'c was used to Jack O'Neill yelling, and his nasty temper. Not to mention, he'd been expecting the outburst the moment he and the others arrived through the gate without _Lantica_ – or Mitchell, McKay, Sheppard and Dex. He didn't flinch – although Ford took a prudent step back.

"She is going to try and ambush the Replicators and capture one for study," he told the small group who had gathered around them in the gate room when it became obvious that Teal'c and the others were the only ones coming through.

"What's a Replicator?" Daniel asked.

"Little spider – looking thing," Ford told him. "You need to see it to believe it."

O'Neill scowled.

"She sent intel with you?"

Teal'c nodded.

"Yes."

"We'd better see it, then…" Sam said, looking torn between worried and curious. Which was exactly how Daniel looked as well.

_Jack_ didn't look curious at all. His face was one of those masks that he made when he didn't want anyone to know what he was thinking.

"Yes," he agreed, gesturing for Daniel to lead the way. "Let's go see it."

And then he'd call _Lantica_ and tell Melony Mitchell to get her butt back to Earth where she belonged.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"I just want to go on record as saying that this is not the brightest thing we've ever done…"

Rodney looked up from his laptop – which was interfaced with _Lantica's_ computer. "You mean as opposed to going after the Wraith? Or flying with a race of people who turn into giant birds wearing only a harness to keep us from plummeting to certain death?"

She didn't rise to the bait.

"Exactly."

Sheppard was seated in the copilot chair and he swiveled around to look at McKay.

"Seriously, are you _sure_ those were Replicators? They could have been-"

"They _had_ to be," he said. _Again_.

"And you think if we go over to the derelict ship they'll just come looking for us?" Ronon asked.

"They already have, remember?"

"They might have just been in the right place at the right time," Sheppard pointed out.

"We're going to give them a reason to come looking for us," Rodney assured them.

"Yeah?" Sheppard asked. "What?"

McKay smirked.

"Distress call."

Mitchell frowned.

"Distress call? Are you nuts?"

_It's a good idea_, Talon said.

Why are you agreeing with him all of the sudden? She asked, more annoyed than she thought she was originally.

_It makes sense. What better way to get them to come for us? It'll certainly be better than spending all our time looking for them_

"It's the best way to bring them to us," Rodney said, unaware that she and Talon were having a conversation as well. "We don't have time to go looking for them before General O'Neill sends a message telling you to go back to Earth, you know. We need to catch our Replicator before then."

_See?_

She scowled, and started pressing buttons on her control panel, and the HUD responded by bringing up several different planets – all of them displaying coordinates.

"What are you doing?" Rodney asked.

"I'm planning an escape route," she replied, bringing up one of the planets for a closer look.

"What? You think this isn't going to work?" Rodney looked scandalized.

"I've already told you guys what I think of this plan. The only reason I've agreed to it at all is because we sent Teal'c and the others to Jack."

"_Lantica_ is a match for anything the Replicators throw at us," Rodney told her.

"You don't _know_ that, Rodney," Sheppard told him, clearly skeptical. "These things are swarming through the Asgard, and they're more advanced than anyone else in the system – right?"

"Everyone but _us_," Rodney answered. "Did you see the way we took out the last two? They're-"

"We might have just gotten lucky," Melony pointed out, even though she could feel Talon's annoyance at her doubt when she said it. She ignored it, though, knowing that she needed to rein McKay's enthusiasm in as well as she could. And apparently _Talon's_ as well.

_I'm not being enthusiastic, I'm being confident_

They didn't usually disagree, and it was physically uncomfortable for her. She felt him lose his irritation with her as he became aware of that discomfort.

_I'm sorry, Hotshot._

He _was_, too, she knew it. She could feel it. But she could also feel that he was certain he was right. Look how many other times he'd been right about what they could accomplish, after all. The Goa'uld were gone, the Wraith all but finished and now there was another enemy to be taken care of – and this time they had a ship that was even deadlier than the last ones they'd used.

"We didn't get _lucky_," Rodney snapped. "We outclassed them. The new shield, the new technology; they're things these bugs haven't seen before and they don't know how to overcome them. We use that to our advantage and take them out while they're still reeling."

Mitchell exchanged a look with Sheppard, who didn't look much more convinced than she felt. The question went between them without actual words being spoken and then they both shrugged at the same time.

"Fine."

McKay beamed.

"But we're still going to find an escape route. Just in case."


	21. Chapter 21

They ended up setting the 'trap' near the last jump on their way home. Not that any of them had any intention of running to Earth on the off chance – the _slight_ chance, as Rodney put it – that something went wrong with the apparently fool-proof ambush, but because this way they'd be close to an escape route. The dialing computer in Lantica was already preprogrammed with three different destinations. All of them were planets that were uninhabited and out of the way of any sort of populations. The point of that had been to avoid leading the Replicators to any innocent bystanders in the case that something went wrong.

A light blinked on the main communications board, which also made a soft ping to alert her that she was receiving an incoming message. McKay glanced at it before taking a sip of his coffee and going back to programming the last of the self-destruct sequences into the computer.

"O'Neill's trying to reach you again."

"I know."

Her wrist was buzzing almost constantly as both Jack and Daniel kept trying to reach her on the communicators that they wore. Communicators that were designed for contact from the distances they were at – although they definitely didn't work from Earth to Atlantis. The problem was that at the moment, she really didn't want to talk to either of them.

_Good idea_

This is your fault, she pointed out, looking over McKay's shoulder to double-check the self-destruct sequence he was inputting. It wouldn't do to not know the proper codes, after all. Not that she had any intention of using them on her brand new ship. When we get back he's probably going to bust me down to Airman and have me inventorying office supplies.

_He'll get over the mad when we come back with a Replicator for Carter to dissect_

I doubt it.

"We're ready," Rodney announced before Talon could reply. The computer gave a soft beep, as if in agreement, and McKay moved out of the co-pilot seat to make room for Sheppard, who slid in easily and looked over at Melony.

"You want to do the honors?"

She scowled and reached over, pressing the distress signal panel. A red light bathed the occupants of the small ship and Ronon stretched his long legs in a purposeful show of indolence.

"How long do you think it'll take?"

Sheppard switched on the long-range sensors, while Mitchell reached for the cloaking controls.

"Depends on how far away they are," Rodney answered. "And how curious they are when they hear it."

"They're metal spiders," John replied. "How curious can they be?"

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"She's still not answering?"

Daniel shook his head.

"No."

"Are you _sure_ these things will reach her?"

The archeologist shrugged.

"No clue."

"_Lantica_ should be able to receive our calls, sir," Sam Carter said. "_Daedalus_ can, and I know Colonel Mitchell's communications are at least as sophisticated as Colonel Caldwell's are. If not more so."

Jack scowled.

"So she's probably ignoring us."

"She almost _has_ to be," Carter agreed. "Unless there's another reason she's not receiving our calls…"

She didn't mention the possibility that something untoward had happened to Mitchell and those with her. Not because it wasn't possible, but because she didn't want to think about it. That and she really believed that _Lantica_ was about the best bet for what Mitchell was trying to do.

"She's ignoring us," Daniel agreed. He'd only tried calling her on the wrist communicator about a dozen times, after all. And with no success.

"When I get my hands on her, she's going to be cleaning bathrooms through the next century."

Daniel couldn't help but smile at the threat, since he knew it wasn't any more than just that.

"I'm pretty sure the Jaffa wouldn't allow that," he told O'Neill. "Even if Teal'c agreed."

"Which he probably won't," Carter added with a slight smile of her own.

Which only brought another scowl.

"Keep trying to reach her," he ordered. "And get Caldwell, too. I want to have a talk with him."

"Yes, sir."

O'Neill turned and left the room. He wanted to have another talk with Teal'c and take another look at the Replicator things.

OOOOOOOOOO

"This is boring."

Melony looked over her shoulder at Ronon, who was definitely fidgeting. He was used to action, not to sitting around waiting, but she thought that he'd have a bit more patience for such things since he was also accustomed to laying in ambush. She knew he'd done just that with more than one group of Wraith in his years as a Runner.

"You wanted to stay."

The Satedan didn't quite scowl, but it was close.

"I know."

He still did. He just didn't want to sit around.

Twice they'd had false alarms. Once it had been a Tok'ra ship at the edge of their sensors, clearly drawn to the distress call. As soon as they'd recognized the ship for what it was, McKay had switched off the distress call until the ship – and her undoubtedly confused crew – went on their way. As soon as they were out of range, McKay had turned their distress call back on.

Three hours after that initial contact, they'd done the same thing to hide from an Asgard ship – this one a bit more tenacious than the Tok'ra. They'd remained hidden for more than an hour while the Asgard had scanned the area thoroughly – including the planet below them – looking for the ship or debris or maybe a stranded crew. Finding nothing, they had finally moved off, and soon after the distress signal had been turned on again.

"We might end up waiting for several days," McKay admitted, torn between the urge to annoy Ronon and the hope that Mitchell wouldn't call the whole thing off at the thought of such a long wait.

Ronon scowled. So did Sheppard and Mitchell.

"I'm not-"

"Quiet!" Rodney had been listening with half his attention on the sensors and they were suddenly screaming at him.

Mitchell brought up the HUD before he could even ask her to and she and Sheppard both leaned forward in their seats – as if that was going to get them any closer to the display.

"We have a contact…" Rodney told them unnecessarily.

Mitchell nodded, and the HUD brought up a new display, this one a sharper image of the contact. A ship she didn't recognize.

"Rodney?"

"I've never seen anything like it," he told her.

Talon?

_No_

"Talon hasn't either," she told him. "Turn off the cloak."

"This is it," his voice actually squeaking with suppressed excitement, McKay turned off the cloak, leaving Lantica in full view to the slowly approaching ship.

"Cut power…"

"Doing it."

What good was a distress call if they didn't look distressed, after all?

The little ship went dark, and a moment later all the sensors, passive and active went dead as well – as did all but the basic systems.

"That's it," Rodney told them in the gloom of a single blinking light. "We're dead to them."

Sheppard looked over his shoulder, his face eerily shadowed in the light.

"Maybe we could find a different way to express that, hmmm?"

Rodney gave him an apologetic look.

"Sorry."


	22. Chapter 22

The four of them were silent for a moment, watching Rodney's laptop as it gave them their only clues about what was going on in the space outside the small ship.

"They're scanning us," McKay whispered, his eyes a little wider and his pupils dilated enough that Mitchell knew he was more nervous about this plan than he had been. Of course, Rodney was a smart guy with plenty of imagination. He'd be able to imagine what might happen if the plan didn't work and they ended up being overrun by the Replicators. Assuming they were Replicators.

_They probably are_, Talon told her.

"Why are you whispering?" Ronon asked McKay, curiously, his voice rumbling and menacing in the silence of the small ship.

The Satedan didn't have a good view of the laptop, so wasn't exactly sure what was going on – beyond what Rodney had just whispered.

Rodney scowled, remembering a time when Elizabeth had asked him the exact same thing.

"Because that's what you _do_ when you're being scanned by aliens, okay?" he snapped, using his regular voice, "Just be quiet so I can watch what they're doing."

Before Ronon could reply – and there definitely would have been a reply – John interrupted.

"They're not going to be able to trace the laptop, right?"

Rodney shook his head.

"The power it uses is no minute that it can easily be mistaken for residual energy – anything could give off that. It shouldn't make them suspicious."

"And if it does?" Ronon asked.

"Then we spring the trap earlier than I planned, that's all. We just need to get them close enough to use _Lantica's_ mini beam."

"Don't you think they're going to get a little suspicious when they see that there are four of us alive on a dead ship?" John asked.

Rodney shook his head.

"According to the Asgard information they sent us, the Replicators don't bother with life forms unless they get in the way. They probably won't notice us – either that or they won't care. They want _technology_, not scalps."

Sheppard didn't look at all comforted by that – Mitchell didn't either, for that matter – but Rodney ignored their looks and turned back to his laptop.

"They've stopped scanning us… get ready."

She climbed into the pilot's seat with practiced ease and John followed suit beside her.

"You _have_ to be ready to activate everything as soon as I tell you to," Rodney reminded them.

"We know, Rodney," Sheppard told him.

"And then you'll need to force their shields down before you try to use the mini beam…" he added.

"We know," Melony replied, her voice edged with tension.

"And then-"

"They know the plan, McKay," Ronon interrupted.

"Yes, I know," he snapped. "I just wanted to…" he trailed off, looking at his laptop again. "The ship is approaching."

Mitchell's hand hovered over the controls, waiting.

"On my mark," Rodney told her, his eyes never leaving the display on the laptop so he didn't see her exchange a look with Sheppard and see the latter roll his eyes in amusement. Amusement that actually cut through the tension in the small craft and made her grin as well, despite the seriousness of the situation.

The wait stretched on for what seemed like a year but was under two minutes. Just when the tension was beginning to return – this time in the form of frayed reflexes – Rodney brought his hand down, excitedly.

"Now!"

With a quick touch, Mitchell brought _Lantica_ back to life. An instant later her shields came back up, giving them all a feeling of more security than before. As soon as that happened, the shields on the alien ship suddenly vanished as if they hadn't even been there, leaving the ship vulnerable to the much smaller vessel.

"I'm scanning them now," Rodney said unnecessarily. "Get ready… there! Do it!"

Sheppard activated the mini beam, and one of the very few pieces of Wraith technology that _Lantica_ had flared to life in an instant. Using the same beam that the Wraith used to scoop up people off the surface of a planet, Sheppard found one of the spiders on the ship and zapped it, sending its energy signature into a small – and self-sustaining – memory disk on the ship. A part that McKay had specially modified for that particular guest, with the knowledge that they definitely wanted to keep it away from any of _Lantica's_ systems.

"Got it!" Rodney crowed, smugly, as Sheppard shut the device down and Mitchell fired _Lantica's_ powerful weapons at the still unshielded ship. It vanished in yet another spectacular explosion, and she felt Talon's exultation at how smoothly the plan had succeeded.

"That's it, campers," Rodney told them, looking up from his laptop. "Now we can go home and-"

An alarm from both the ship itself and the laptop he was holding interrupted him and he looked down while at the same time Mitchell and Sheppard looked over at their controls. The HUD came up on its own just as Rodney gave a slight gasp.

"Oh, no…"

"What?" Ronon asked, looking at the HUD since he still didn't have a good view of McKay's laptop.

"We have company," Melony said.

There were several blips on the HUD where only a moment before there had been one. And they were all around them.

"That's impossible," Rodney said, shaking his head in disbelief. "There's no way there are-"

A blast suddenly rocked the little ship as one of the others fired on them.

"Apparently they've decided to go for scalps," Sheppard said, pulling himself upright since the blast had knocked him almost completely out of his chair.

"We can outrun them," Rodney told him. "They-"

Another blast rocked them, followed immediately by two more. Clearly more than one of the ships were firing at them.

"Shields are holding," Melony told them, her eyes never leaving the HUD as she started firing back. There wasn't time to try and take down the other shields – and she didn't dare divert the power from the shields to even make the attempt. Not with them in danger of being overwhelmed like they were. The ship she fired on absorbed the impact of the blast she'd levered at them, but a moment later blew up instead of being able to manage a return salvo. "Rodney! Set the self-destruct…"

"What?" the words were shocked. "We don't need to-"

_"Do it!"_

This was shouted in Talon's voice as the symbiote took over to better put his quicker reflexes into play with the ship's computers and systems. Not to mention McKay would listen to Talon without question.

Which is exactly what happened.

Grumbling but looking down at his laptop, McKay asked, "how long?"

"Three minutes."

"That's not much time," Sheppard told her calmly.

Melony/Talon nodded, still not looking away from the battle – and wincing every time another blast struck the little craft.

"I don't plan on blowing us up," Talon's deep voice explained. "But we absolutely cannot allow them to take this ship. It'd be disastrous."

"Outrun them!" Rodney yelled, his voice sounding a bit panicked.

"Is the self-"

Before the question could be asked, the small area was shaken with yet another vicious hit, this one tossing Rodney and Ronon both out of their precarious seats and into a tangle on the floor. Alarms started blaring all over the console in front of Mitchell and Sheppard.

"We've lost propulsion," Sheppard told her, his voice as calm as he could keep it.

"Yeah."

Rodney rolled over, looking at his laptop, and trying his best to ignore the sudden pounding in his head from the gash above his nose that was bleeding profusely.

"Self destruct in 2 and a half minutes – just in case you wanted me to turn it off…"

"Dial the gate."

Now it was Melony's voice – which told Sheppard that they were beyond being able to maneuver away from this problem and Mitchell and Talon both agreed. They'd taken out at least half a dozen more ships, but the others were far more aggressive than they had been and _Lantica_ was taking a beating.

"We lost propulsion," Ronon reminded them, standing now and clinging to the back of Mitchell's chair for support. His face was as bloody as Rodney's, proving that they definitely should have put seatbelts in the side seats as well. "We can't-"

"Gate's up!" Sheppard interrupted.

Mitchell keyed her communications, ignoring Rodney when he looked back down at his laptop, blood dripping on it, only to be wiped away impatiently.

"Shields are at 20 percent and there are more ships arriving…"

_"Mayday, Mayday,"_ Melony's voice was calm, despite the alarms blaring all around her. "_This is Lantica. We are-"_

The next explosion was the most powerful yet, and it knocked her and Sheppard both forward in their seats, tossing them like rag dolls against the front panel and the controls to the HUD, which crackled and went dark from the impact. The blow knocked John unconscious and Melony felt the sharp pangs that were a sure sign of broken ribs and maybe worse. She ignored it as well as she could, and jerked herself backward, pulling John with her and passing him over to Ronon, who had just picked himself up off the floor.

"Rodney! Get out of here! Take the others and-"

"What about y-"

_"Go!"_

"But-"

"Ronon!"

The Satedan gave her a look, but he knew there wasn't time to argue. He pulled Sheppard against his side with one arm to support his limp frame and reached over and grabbed McKay with the other, yanking him out of his seat. Melony made sure they were in the right spot and then hit a button on the smoking console.

An instant later the hidden ring device activated and transported the three down to the surface of the planet they'd been so carefully orbiting.

_We need to go Hotshot,_ Talon told her, taking over once more.

They glanced at the bloodied display on McKay's laptop – less than 20 seconds on the self-destruct timer – and she hit that same button on the console, certain now that the ship was going to blow and there wasn't thing one that the Replicators could do to stop it.

Talon ignored protesting aches and pains and scrambled on the heaving ship to the circle that had just been burned into the flooring of _Lantica's_ cabin. Another explosion – serious enough to make them both wonder if McKay had set the timer wrong and the self-destruct had just gone off – knocked them to the floor. He had just enough time to jerk her legs into the circle when the ring transported activated again, and an alarm shrieked at them, warning them that the shields were completely gone.

An explosion sliced through the hull at that very moment, and the little ship that had shown every indication of being the deadliest ship every built disintegrated in a flash of white that seemed brighter than the center of an exploding star, taking Mitchell and Talon with it.


	23. Chapter 23

The first indication had been the gate engaging when no one was expected back. Jack had been in his office, brooding and continually trying to reach Melony on his wrist communicator. Carter, he knew, was in the control room downloading the information that Teal'c and the others had brought back, and he was pretty sure Daniel – and maybe Teal'c – was hovering over her. Not because he was interested in the information so much as he was hoping that they'd hear something from Melony and the control room was almost certainly the first place that word would come. The first sound from the Stargate had brought the alarms in the SGC to life and by the time the word had come to O'Neill for him to report to the control room he was already halfway down the steps.

By the time he reached the control room the gate was active – although the iris was closed. He went over to stand by Teal'c, Carter and Daniel and wasn't surprised to see Ford running into the room with Teyla close by.

"What do we-"

"'_Mayday, Mayday, this is Lantica-'"_

The words were cut off, and the silence was frightening, because each of them had no trouble visualizing why the Mayday had stopped.

"Open the iris," Jack ordered. "And close the blast shield." He grabbed the microphone that was on the wall close by. _"Security teams, look alive…"_

It was all he needed to say. If _Lantica_ made it through the gate, they'd be ready to dodge out of her way and still be ready to repel anything – or anyone – that followed. Then they waited.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The surface of the planet was shrouded in the dim light of what was either a sunset or a sunrise. The only other light came from the event horizon of the active Stargate, and a moment later the bright flash that was associated with the working of a ring transporter. Suddenly it was dark again and three people were sprawled in the brown grass in front of the Stargate.

Ronon heaved himself to his feet and pulled McKay up. The astrophysicist was bleeding profusely from somewhere in the vicinity of his nose, but Sheppard was still out and that had Ronon even more worried. He pulled Sheppard out of the circle burned into the grass and looked up at the sky as if he could see what was happening above them.

"Where is she?!" Rodney asked, reeling backward as soon as Ronon released him.

"She's coming," Ronon answered, draping Sheppard over his shoulder as carefully as he could.

As if to confirm that, the ring transporter returned, the light flashing bright enough to make Ronon's eyes water. It was gone in an instant, but the glare was still there and he blinked repeatedly, trying to clear the sudden starburst that was exploding in his eyes.

"Where are they…? They had to come. There was no other way…"

Rodney hadn't been staring directly at the transporter when it had materialized – he'd been cupping his face with both hands trying to keep his eyeballs from falling out – and so he was able to see sooner than Ronon.

"Maybe-"

A brilliant flash above them – way above them, but as bright as a falling star – interrupted him and they both stared up at it.

"That was _Lantica_…" Rodney said, softly. "It _had_ to be. The crystals used in the shields would have magnified the self-destruct and increased the-"

"We need to go," Ronon interrupted. He grabbed McKay and pushed him toward the Stargate, following right behind with Sheppard still slung over his shoulder.

They emerged in the middle of the embarkation room, staring down the barrels of several machine guns and other forms of firearms held by serious looking men and women – who luckily recognized them right away.

"Medical team to the embarkation room!" the leader of the security detail yelled, pulling McKay to the side of the gate to keep him from being crushed by _Lantica_ when she showed up. Although with McKay and the others on foot, he had a feeling the little ship wasn't coming. When the gate shut down a second later, it seemed to be confirming that.

The General O'Neill was there, pulling Rodney around to face him and looking for all the world like he was ready to shake him to pieces.

"Where's Melony?"

McKay's face was smeared with blood and his eyes were wide with shock. Several kinds of shock, Jack decided. It made his stomach clench, because he knew that look and it wasn't from the pain that he had to be feeling. He'd _seen_ that look before – he'd even worn it far too many times.

"_Rodney_! Where is she?"

The shout snapped McKay out of his paralysis – for a moment, anyway.

"She didn't make it…" he whispered, his eyes wide, his face pale where it wasn't bloody. He looked past O'Neill to see Sheppard being eased onto a gurney. "They… they didn't come. We had the only escape route and they didn't… Oh my God." He looked up at O'Neill. "We lost her. I lost her. It's all my fault…"

The shock was back, and more, and Jack knew he was the only thing holding McKay up just then. He turned to Ronon, who was battered as well, but not as bloody.

"Is he right?"

"It wasn't his fault…"

"Where's Melony?" Daniel asked, running up with the others.

Jack handed McKay over to Fraiser, who was right behind Teal'c.

"She's not coming…"

He knew he was wearing that same shocked expression that McKay was, now.

"What? What happened?"

Jack turned to McKay, but knew he wasn't going to be any help just then. The man had taken a huge hit and not just from whatever it was that had bloodied his face. Instead he gestured to Ronon.

"That's what I want to know. Take McKay and Sheppard to the infirmary," he told Fraiser. "We'll be in the briefing room."

OOOOOOOOOOO

The ship moved silently in the emptiness of space, the shields easily protecting the vessel from the thousands – if not millions – of pieces of debris that ranged in size from no bigger than a thimble to pieces that were about the size of a large man's hand. Nothing bigger than that – and nothing that moved on its own or tried to replicate.

The being at the controls of the ship waited to make sure, and then turned to his second in command.

"Is she alive?"

"For now."

"We must inform Thor."

"And the _Tau'ri_?"

"We will let Thor decide what to do with her."

"If she lives."


	24. Chapter 24

Fraiser ushered McKay into the infirmary and settled him on an examination table so she could get a better look at his face. A team of her medics did the same for Sheppard; only he was still unconscious so they didn't have the luxury of asking him where he hurt. Of course, McKay wasn't much more responsive when Janet started cleaning the blood off his face with a couple of wet towels.

"Your nose doesn't look broken," she told him, more because she was worried about the fact that he hadn't spoken – and wasn't flinching when she knew it had to be killing him. "But we'll do some x-rays just to make sure."

He turned his head, looking over at the table where Sheppard was surrounded by medics.

"How is he?"

"Too soon to tell," Janet replied. "We'll get some x-rays on him, too."

"I could have gotten him killed…" Rodney said, more to himself than to her.

"He'll be fine."

"It's all my fault…" He said – and now she knew he wasn't talking to her. His eyes were glassy and his skin was an unhealthy pallor. She turned to one of her medics.

"Bring me a warmed blanket."

"Yes, doctor."

McKay didn't seem to notice when she wrapped the blanket around him, but he did finally wince and jerk away when she ran her fingers against his nose, feeling for any signs of fracture. He didn't snap at her, though – which she _expected_, and truthfully, had been hoping for.

"Sorry," she told him, almost meaning it.

He nodded, but didn't say anything.

"McKay? Do you hurt anywhere else?"

The blood on his face was cleared away, now, leaving what was going to be some incredible looking bruises by the time it was done, but now she needed to know where else he might be injured – and she really needed him talking.

He didn't answer. Instead he was looking over at Sheppard's bed once more. John wasn't there – his team of medics had taken him for a series of tests to look for any hidden injuries – but McKay was looking that direction anyway.

"McKay?"

"I can't believe I lost her," he murmured, softly. "What have I done?" He looked back at Fraiser, who was really starting to worry, now. "What am I going to tell Carson?"

Janet frowned.

OOOOOOOOOO

"So what happened?"

Jack was never long on ceremony – especially when it came to debriefing – and Ronon wasn't really the kind that you needed to build up to the right questions anyway, so it didn't matter.

The Satedan shook his head.

"They came up with the plan and-"

"Which plan?" Daniel interrupted.

"McKay's plan. To get one of the Replicators and bring it back for study."

"Are you serious?" O'Neill asked, incredulously. "To _Earth_?"

Ronan shrugged.

"That's pretty much what Mitchell said. She was against the whole idea – especially capturing one. McKay said they'd put it on the space station and not bring it here."

"If she was against it, why did she go along?" Jack asked.

"McKay and Talon wanted to. They talked her into it."

"Damn it." Jack leaned back in his chair, obviously upset – and just as obviously trying to hide it.

"You're sure it was _Melony_ in charge?" Daniel asked. "Not Talon?"

Ronon nodded.

"She was speaking with _her_ voice, not the deep one."

Teal'c had been listening just as closely as the others – maybe even moreso.

"You are certain that _Lantica_ exploded?" he asked. "Perhaps it was a ploy to make the Replicators believe she was destroyed."

Ronon shook his head.

"McKay was certain the ship blew up. There was a bright light in the sky – an explosion."

"This _is_ all his fault," Jack said, bitterly.

Ronon shook his head again.

"No. McKay's plan worked. We captured the Replicator – _and_ blew up the ship it was on. The Replicators ambushed us. McKay couldn't have expected that. _I_ didn't."

The implication there was that while McKay might not have expected it – he was a scientist after all and not a soldier – Ronon clearly thought that _he_ should have.

"Ambushed you?" Daniel repeated, leaning forward. "You really think that's what happened?"

"Either that, or there are a lot more of them than the Asgard could imagine. We took out seven or eight ships before we abandoned _Lantica_."

"What happened then?" Jack asked, his expression carefully controlled.

"Sheppard activated the Stargate on the planet below us, got knocked out, and we used the ring thing to escape. Mitchell was supposed to follow as soon as she was certain that the ship was going to blow up and the Replicators couldn't stop it."

"But she didn't follow?" Sam asked.

"No."

The room was suddenly very silent.

OOOOOOOOO

The room was warm, despite the austere metal walls and the lack of anything resembling furniture. The only object in the room was a metal tube, with three Asgard standing around it. Inside the pod was a lifeless form completely enclosed in a clear gel-like substance.

"Will she live?"

"It will depend on how badly injured the symbiote is, Commander Thor. We can keep her as she is until it heals her – provided it is able."

"We must return her to her people," Thor told them both.

"She is an incredible prize, Commander," the other objected.

Thor looked over at him.

"You would have the Jaffa _and_ the Tau'ri rise against us?"

The Asgard backpedaled immediately.

"No. Of course not."

Thor turned back to the pod.

"Transport her to my ship. I will return her to O'Neill."


	25. Chapter 25

Even on a secure military base like Cheyenne Mountain rumors and bad news travel like wildfire. Military scuttlebutt is far more accurate than even the most official announcements most of the time and word that Colonel Mitchell's brand new ship had been destroyed – with her on board – went through the base like an ill wind. It left officers and enlisted men – and women – with heavy hearts, and uncertainty since they all wondered what would happen with the Jaffa without their goddess to keep them in line. Many of them had fought the Jaffa, and much preferred the way things were now to the way they'd been before Mitchell and Talon had consolidated control of them. Not to mention Mitchell herself was popular with most of the people on the base – despite the fact that she wasn't there all that often any more. She was one of them, after all.

As Jack moved through the corridors on his way to the infirmary, he could tell by the moods and expressions of those he passed that they already knew. He knew, too, that _his_ expression wasn't making things any easier on them – despite the fact that he was trying very hard to keep his face expressionless. He was angry; with _her_ because she'd gone off and done something so incredibly reckless, and with McKay and Talon for talking her into it, and hurting because he felt like he'd just lost a piece of his soul, and knew that he couldn't mourn just yet, because there were too many things to do and it was just too soon for him to be able to grasp that she was really gone.

He was also very much aware of Teal'c, who was walking beside him – and he couldn't help but think that Teal'c should have been able to stop her. Which wasn't true, and he knew it. Knew it with his head, anyway. His heart wasn't listening to anything just then. Teal'c had given his pledge to Melony, and had promised her that he would support her in his position as First Prime. Jack knew there were nuances to that position that he didn't understand; things that would have made it impossible for Teal'c to stop Melony and Talon from trying such an audacious plan. Things that he hadn't thought of before, but now couldn't help but wonder about.

Daniel had vanished, but he knew that it was only because he wasn't ready to talk yet, and Carter was walking beside him; a solid presence that he knew would support him however he needed her to.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Fraiser was looking at an X-ray when O'Neill and Sam walked into the infirmary. Right behind them came Teal'c, Teyla and Ronon. She wondered for a moment where Daniel was, but _only_ for a moment. It was very possible that he was somewhere trying to come to terms with what was going on and wasn't ready – or _willing_ – to face anything else just then.

"How's Sheppard?"

Fraiser looked over at the bed Sheppard had been put into, which was beside the one McKay was in. Teyla and Ronon were standing between the two beds, clearly checking on their progress for themselves.

"He's concussed. There's a bump on the side of his head the size of a golf ball, so we know _why_ he's unconscious. Preliminary exams and X-rays look clear. He took a nasty blow, but it could have been a lot worse."

"And McKay?"

Considering how much he'd originally despised the man, it was a sign of how things really could change that O'Neill had even asked about him.

"He's in shock. We wiped the blood away from his face and found a fair-sized gash at the bridge of his nose. Some stitches took care of that, but he's not very coherent right now, and he'll ache once the shock wears off. Whatever _he_ hit, he hit it pretty hard."

O'Neill nodded, and Fraiser hesitated, looking between him, Sam and Teal'c.

"No word from Colonel Mitchell?"

Jack's expression went closed once more – Teal'c's had never changed from impassive in the first place – and Sam looked bleak.

"No. If she was able, she'd have reported in by now."

"She might be-"

_"General O'Neill to the gate room! General O'Neill please report to the gate room immediately!"_

The call was urgent – and something else that he couldn't recognize. Jack looked over at Teal'c, wondering immediately if somehow the Replicators had managed to survive the destruction of _Lantica_ after all and had found the way to Earth's Stargate. Without actually saying anything all three of them headed out the door as orderly as they could to avoid bumping into anything or crashing into anyone. They were followed immediately by Teyla and Ronon – who had just shrugged off one of the medics who was trying to check him for injuries.

OOOOOOOOO

Since they'd been called to the gate room specifically, O'Neill and the others didn't head for the control room. They stormed into the gate room – the door was already opened for them by one of the Marines – and stopped in their tracks as soon as they entered.

In the middle of the room was a ring of security forces – all holding weapons, although none of them actually had them at the ready. In the middle of that ring, looking calm and serene as always, was Thor. Standing beside what looked like a large Tylenol – only clear. From his position, Jack couldn't see what it was exactly, but that was only part of his problem. He felt a surge of annoyance that he didn't bother to hide. The last thing he needed just then was Thor showing up unannounced for God only knew what reason.

The men on his side of the ring moved out of the way when he and the others walked up, and Thor turned to look at him.

"Greetings, O'Neill."

"Thor, what are you doing here? Now is not really a good time…"

"Returning something that you have lost," the Asgard answered, gesturing to the capsule. Jack frowned, but Sam gasped, already walking up to it and putting her hands on the clear side, trying to get a better look.

"Colonel Mitchell!"

"What?" Jack turned as well – as did the entire security team as well as Teal'c and the others.

"One of our warships responded to a distress call from an unknown vessel," Thor explained, calmly, despite the suddenly charged atmosphere in the room. "They did not arrive in time to save the ship, but they did manage to beam the sole occupant of that ship from it before it was destroyed."

Jack's hand was on the clear side, now, as well. He could see a form inside, but it was completely immersed in some kind of clear liquid.

"My God. Is she all right? Get her out of there." He turned towards the control room. "Get Fraiser here, _now_!"

Still speaking calmly over the sudden call for a medical team to the gate room, Thor shook his head.

"You would be well advised to leave her where she is for now, O'Neill. She is badly injured and almost certainly would not survive if not for the gel she is in at the moment."

"Is she breathing?" Sam asked.

"The liquid is oxygen rich. It will sustain her while her symbiote heals her – if it is healthy enough to do it. It will also keep her from infection, since she is badly burned. My people use it in the event of serious injuries."

"So she's okay in there?" Jack couldn't believe it. And tried very hard to force down the surge of elation he was feeling at having her back – no matter how badly injured.

"She is. I will confer with your doctor Fraiser on how best to sustain her while she heals, but the gel is self-renewing and will not need to be removed from the pod until she is ready to be removed as well."

"You're sure?" Sam asked, smiling when Daniel arrived on the scene as well. His eyes were red and she was certain that he'd been off somewhere by himself, but he must have heard the call for Jack – and then the medical team – and come to see what was happening.

"I am."

A disturbance in the ring of security around them announced the arrival of Janet and her medical team, and Jack turned to her, his expression far more hopeful than it had been – although he wasn't smiling just yet.

"Doctor, take Thor here and Colonel Mitchell to the infirmary and do whatever he tells you you need to do."

"Colonel Mi-" she turned toward the pod and her eyes widened as she noticed the form inside. "Are you _serious_?"

"Indeed," Thor told her. "I will tell you what you need to know to help her recovery."

She nodded, not needing to hear anything else just then.

"Let's go."

Jack held up his hand.

"Doc-"

"I'll give you a full report as soon as I have one," Janet promised, gesturing for her team and moving back as they all swarmed around the pod, which Thor was already explaining.

O'Neill nodded and stepped back out of the way, which told the rest of the crowd to do the same.

"This is good news, O'Neill," Teal'c said, and Jack looked up and saw what could only be a smile on the big Jaffa's face. Not a beaming grin, but a real, relieved smile.

"Yeah, it is that."

And without him saying a word, he knew that everyone on base would know about it almost immediately. Which was fine with him.


	26. Chapter 26

Jack didn't follow Fraiser and the others to the infirmary. He was tempted to, but knew he'd only be in the way. Instead, he went to his office and poured himself a stiff drink. Not something he normally would do, but in this case, he needed it. There had been too many highs and lows today and his system wasn't as good at handling them as he used to be.

He had just put the bottle of Scotch back in his desk drawer and leaned back in his chair when a knock at the open door drew his attention from the glass in his hand. He looked up and saw Sam standing in the doorway.

"Busy?"

He shook his head and gestured for her to enter.

"Come in."

She walked over to the desk and settled herself into one of the chairs in front of it at his silent invitation.

"Want a drink?"

She smiled, well aware that he was celebrating – even if _he_ wasn't – and shook her head.

"No. Thanks."

Not at all self-conscious about drinking in the middle of the day – at least on this day – O'Neill took a sip of his drink and leaned back again.

"Gotta love the Asgard, huh?"

Jack nodded.

"Yup." He looked over at her. "Did Thor show Fraiser what she needed to know?"

Carter shrugged.

"They shooed me out. Everyone but Sheppard, McKay and Teal'c."

Sheppard and McKay because they were patients and Teal'c because Fraiser likely realized that if he didn't want to go there was no way she could make him, so she'd diplomatically allowed him to decide on his own whether he needed to be there or not. Jack understood this without Carter explaining it, she knew. Which was why she didn't explain it.

"These Replicators are going to be a problem."

She nodded.

"I haven't had a lot of time to look through the intel we have on them, but if they're smart enough to trick Mitchell and McKay both into falling into an ambush, then yes, they aren't mindless machines like I had hoped would be the case."

Jack frowned.

"They didn't trick Melony and McKay. They tricked _Talon_ and McKay."

Not a big difference, he supposed, but it was important that he make the distinction. Luckily, Carter didn't mind the correction and didn't take it personally.

"Yes, sir."

"Do me a favor, Sam," he said. "Go keep an eye on things in the infirmary and let me know the minute you know something, will you?"

She nodded as she stood up.

"Yes, sir."

Not that Janet wouldn't let him know immediately as well, but she didn't mind the errand – and decided he probably wanted some time alone. She could understand.

"Thanks."

OOOOOOOOOO

By the time Carter returned to the infirmary most of the furor over Thor's arrival had died down. For that matter, when she entered the main room of the infirmary, she didn't even see the Asgard – although the strange pod had been placed at the far end of the room, out of the way and presumably someplace where the occupant could be monitored closely. There were several machines hooked up to it – although Sam was sure that the thing hadn't been opened – so she didn't know exactly _how_ they were hooked up. But they were beeping softly.

Teal'c was standing by the entrance of the infirmary, staying out of the way of Fraiser's people, but definitely either guarding the place, or waiting for a report of his own. Sam wasn't sure. She smiled a greeting to him and received a slight bow in return. Teyla, Ronon and Daniel were nowhere to be seen.

"He couldn't wait for my report?" Janet asked, walking out of her office to meet Sam and holding a file in her hand that had Colonel Mitchell's name on it.

She shrugged.

"More like he sent me to see if there's anything you need…"

Janet didn't look like she bought that, but it didn't annoy her that Carter was there. They were friends, after all. She shook her head.

"Everything's under control. I was actually just getting ready to go report. Want the abbreviated edition?"

"If you don't mind."

"Thor's gone, but he left the pod – and that gel stuff is amazing. He said he'd let me have a sample of it when he returns for the pod. Colonel Mitchell has some pretty serious burns. Even if she'd made it off _Lantica_ before it was destroyed and made it back here to the infirmary, there's no way she would have lived."

"It's that bad?"

"I've never seen anyone with burns like hers live. Of course, she has _Talon_, so that will be the deciding factor. Thor says if Talon is capable of healing her, the gel will sustain her as long as he needs."

"Is he?"

"We're monitoring them both, but without taking her out of the pod there's no way to really know for certain."

"How do you know when it's safe to get her out of it?" Sam asked curiously.

"The gel changes color when her body chemistry returns to close to normal parameters. The stuff really is amazing. If it's something we can get the Asgard to share with us, it could really make a difference in medicine – and not just for burn patients."

"Is Talon healthy enough to heal her?" Sam asked, looking toward the pod almost automatically.

Janet shrugged.

"I don't know. She's alive, though, and as far as we can tell he is, too. This one is going to take some time, Sam. We'll have to wait and see."


	27. Chapter 27

Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard wasn't exactly used to waking up with pounding headaches in the infirmary, but it wasn't completely unheard of, either. When he opened his eyes, though, he noticed right away that he wasn't in the Atlantis infirmary. That room was light and open. And the tiles in the ceiling weren't really tiles at all but something more aesthetically pleasing – whatever the Ancients had used. The tiles that he found himself looking up at were regular old run of the mill tiles and the room wasn't nearly as light and open. Which wasn't such a bad thing, really, as bad as his head was pounding.

He was still noticing the differences and trying to decide where he was when the view of the tiles was blocked by Ronon Dex's head. The Satedan looked down at him, his expression a mix of relieved and something else that Sheppard wasn't sure of.

"You're awake."

"Yeah…"

There didn't seem to really be much he could say to that. Ronon continued looking at him, and Sheppard decided that something was wrong.

"What happened?"

"What do you remember?"

John hesitated, trying to force his brain into some semblance of thought beyond the here and now. Then he did remember. _Lantica_ had been ambushed by the Replicators. That was the only thing that could have happened. The only way they could have been taken so much by surprise.

"The Replicators…"

Ronon nodded.

"Right."

"Did we win?"

Ronon looked okay, after all. If they'd lost, they'd be dead most likely. At least, he thought they would be. The Replicators didn't take prisoners as far as the information he remembered looking at had told them.

"We lost _Lantica_."

The way he said it meant there was more.

"Colonel Mitchell?"

Ronon turned his head automatically, looking down at the end of the room. John followed his gaze, but didn't see anyone in any of the beds in the row. Just a screened off area at the far end.

"She's alive," Ronon told him. "But they don't know if she'll make it."

"Rodney?"

Again Ronon turned away, but this time it was the other direction, and when John followed suit, he saw that McKay was asleep in the bed next to his own. There was a bandage on his face and another on his hand, but he wasn't hooked up to any specialized machinery as near as Sheppard could tell. Which had to be a good sign.

"He'll be okay," Ronon assured him. "Just hit his face against something."

Sheppard grunted; he knew how that felt. But before he could ask anything else, Janet Fraiser had joined Ronon at his bedside. Which told him where he was, since he hadn't thought to ask.

"Colonel," Fraiser said, automatically shining a penlight into his eyes and making them water instantly. "It's good to see you awake."

Before he had a chance to even reply to that, she started running a battery of tests on his reflexes and God only knew what else. Ronon took the opportunity to slip away before she remembered that no one had actually checked him out since they'd arrived. He had other things he could do, after all.

Like find Teyla and let her know Sheppard was awake and would probably be expecting her to visit eventually.

OOOOOOOOOO

Melony Mitchell loved to take her time waking up in the morning. There was nothing better – as far as she was concerned – than allowing little sounds and sensations around you to pull you slowly out of sleep and into wakefulness. Her symbiote knew this. He'd actually shared the sensation with her on every occasion she'd had the chance to do so since the two of them had blended. It was something he enjoyed as well.

But something that he couldn't do on his own.

A symbiote was always awake and aware what was going on around the host. Even when the host was unconscious. Unless whatever had happened to knock out the host also knocked out the symbiote. Rare but certainly not unheard of. The symbiote still healed, even when it, too, had been knocked out. It had happened to Talon once before with Melony – not counting the time when _he'd_ been the target of the attack which was a completely different situation – but that one time he'd only been out a short time and had come to and been able to assess instantly what needed most of his attention.

When Talon abruptly came to after the lost battle with the Replicators he knew immediately that something was very very wrong. Mitchell was hurt, but that wasn't the thing that drew his attention right away. The fact that she was breathing _liquid_ had him instantly panicked. Something that is unheard of for a symbiote. Beyond all _his_ experiences, he grasped control of her body to get them out of whatever they'd fallen into to keep her from drowning, and hadn't even managed the first motion before he realized that a) her arms were both broken and weren't going to move without doing serious damage to them and b) she was breathing just fine and getting plenty of oxygen into her system. Even under water.

Then, once he'd managed to slow his own heartbeat – adrenaline wasn't something only _humans_ had, after all – he had a chance to try and analyze the stuff they were in and found that it wasn't water at all. He didn't know exactly what it was – without Melony awake at least, he couldn't really examine it all that well – but it seemed to be pretty amazing, and he actually had to think through several hundred years of memories before he recalled that the Asgard had something similar to this that they used on their own badly injured.

Which led him to believe that they were almost certainly on an Asgard ship – or an Asgard planet. And now he felt a sting of remorse for the loss of _Lantica_. There was no way the Asgard could have saved _Lantica_ – he was surprised, really, that they'd managed to save Mitchell and himself. The explosion was irreversible by the time they'd tried to escape and nothing the Asgard – _or_ the Replicators – could have done would have been able to stop it. Which had been the whole idea, of course. She was never going to forgive him for talking her into the plan that had ultimately led to the loss of that little ship. She might not have showed it outwardly, but Melony thought of _Lantica_ as her own. _Fugly_ and _Fuglier_ had both been conceived before she'd blended with Talon. While she was more than willing to use them and she had been genuinely impressed with them, she truly considered them to be Talon's.

_Lantica_ had been something that they'd built together – with the help of others, of course. That made her a part of Melony. And she'd loved that little ship from the very beginning. And Talon had talked her into a plan that she hadn't wanted anything to do with. A plan that had not only destroyed _Lantica_ beyond all chance of fixing, but had also managed to get Melony hurt about as badly as Talon had ever seen anyone injured.

Nothing he couldn't fix, though. Especially once he realized that the Asgard goo that they were in was doing a lot of his work for him. It was protecting her from infection that would give him the time he needed to heal the numerous burns she'd obtained, and it was keeping her stable so that he could use his energies (and hers) toward fixing all the other injuries that almost certainly would have killed her if the Asgard hadn't rescued them.

As he started working on healing her, he turned aside the problem of how to make up to her for being such an idiot. Time enough for that later, he supposed.


	28. Chapter 28

"How can she breathe in there?"

Leaning heavily, his head pounding like a drum, Sheppard had been determined nonetheless to check on Mitchell as soon as Fraiser had made an appearance to look in on him. Fraiser had refused at first, but John was insistent and more importantly, working himself up – making her worry about the possibility of a stroke or other situation, considering the concussion he was already dealing with. She'd helped him up and walked with him over to the curtained off area, giving him a moment to see for himself that she really was alive and as well as she could be just then.

"It's the gel she's in," Janet explained – again. "It's oxygen rich. She's not actually _breathing_ it, just soaking her lungs with it – the same as if she really was breathing."

"Will it hurt her in the long run?"

"Not with Talon."

"And you're _sure_ he's still in there?"

Fraiser nodded and pointed to the two monitors that were hooked to the glass shell of the pod. They weren't perfect, but they were getting the echoes of two life forms inside the gel.

"He's there." She looked over and was a little relieved to see that he wasn't quite as pale as he'd been when she'd helped him to his feet. But he was still unsteady enough that she decided it was time to end the field trip. "Time for you to get back to bed, Colonel."

It was a measure of either how awful he felt or how unnerved he was by the pod that he didn't even argue. Instead he allowed her to help him back down the aisle and to his bed where he flopped down just in time to hear Rodney groan from the bed next to his.

"You're awake?" he asked, trying to hold as still as possible to give his head a chance to stop pounding.

"I'm _dying_…" Rodney complained. Even his voice sounded pained.

"I don't think so," Fraiser told him, leaning over and shining a light in his eyes to check his pupils. "You look like you got into quite the fight, though…"

"I feel like it, too," McKay assured her.

"Don't be such a baby," Sheppard told him, closing his eyes before Fraiser could decide to shine her light in them as well.

Rodney groaned again, this time with an agony that John hadn't heard before. A sound that actually made him open his eyes and turn his head.

"You okay?"

"She's going to kill me."

Fraiser scowled.

"I'm not even touch-"

"Not _you_. Melony."

Sheppard frowned.

"What?"

"It was my idea to ambush the Replicators," Rodney said, sitting up and holding his head in his hands – probably to keep it from falling off. "My idea to use the self-destruct if things went wrong. I almost handed _Lantica_ to the Replicators - and worse, I'm the reason she's destroyed."

Janet patted his shoulder, but was clearly at a loss for anything to say. She didn't know Rodney all that well, after all.

"I'll leave you guys alone for a while," she told them. "Let someone know if either of you need anything."

Sheppard nodded his thanks, but Rodney didn't even seem to notice her leaving.

"She's never going to forgive me…" he murmured, more to himself than anything.

"Don't worry about it, Rodney," John said, closing his eyes again. His head hurt too badly just then to help McKay through a crisis that had no resolution at the moment. "You can build her a new ship. That'd be a good start."

McKay just made a noise that sounded more impatient than anything else, and John allowed himself to drift back to sleep, hoping that by the time he woke up again his head would be much better.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"How are they?"

Jack shrugged, even though he knew that Elizabeth Weir wouldn't be able to see the gesture on the other side of the wormhole. At the moment their connection was audio only.

"Sheppard's got a nasty bump on his head, McKay's out but Fraiser says he's going to be fine – he just hit something face-first – and Ronon came out unscathed."

There was a slight hesitation on the other end.

"And Melony?"

Now the hesitation was all on Jack's end.

"We're not sure, yet. The Asgard put her in some kind of gel that's supposed to keep her safe from infection and anything else while Talon heals her, but we're not sure what kind of shape he's in, so we're not even all that positive he'll be able to do anything. She's alive, though," he added. "All we can do is wait and see."

Which was the kind of thing that drove him nuts.

"Should I send for Carson and have him come help?"

Jack shook his head.

"No. The others are in good hands, and all he would do here is worry and drive himself – and the rest of us – crazy. When is he due to get back there?"

"A couple more days."

"Send him over when he gets back. Hopefully we'll have better news for you guys by then."

"I hope so, too."

"SGC out."

The connection terminated and Jack looked over at Carter.

"Think it'd drive Fraiser bonkers if I go see how everyone's doing?"

Sam smiled, knowing there was really only one person he wanted to check on. The others were going to be fine – just like he'd told Weir.

"I think so. But has that ever stopped you before?"

"Good point."


	29. Chapter 29

She woke slowly. Slowly enough that awareness came to her a little bit at a time, and her entire thoughts were filled with her symbiote's 'voice' telling her repeatedly that she needed to be calm and not panic, and needed to hold absolutely still. Talon's warnings alone would have been enough to make her panic except that he kept absolute control over her body as he woke her, determined to keep her from doing anything until he was ready for her to do it.

_Carefully, Hotshot. It's different this time…_

What he meant by that she wasn't sure. At least not at first. Then as she started becoming more aware of her surroundings, she realized that something was definitely not right. She felt something smothering her; something that filled her mouth and nose and was even heavy enough to be an actual weight against her entire body.

She was under water.

The realization made her panic – exactly as Talon had expected. He held her tightly, keeping her from gasping in shock and fear and holding her body rigid as that first wave of panic passed and he was able to get her attention back on him and not on what was happening.

_Easy. We're in a liquid, but you're fine. It's not what you think…_

Since she was pretty sure she was drowning – and wasn't able to move to get out so she could breathe.

Let me up!

_You're okay_

As he soothed her he shared with her a mental image of the gel she was in and what it was doing for her. And pointed out to her how she was still getting oxygen even though she wasn't actually breathing.

It didn't help much. While she did stop panicking, she wasn't soothed. Not that he blamed her; being under water was fine if you were a fish, but not for a person. It screamed against every survival instinct she had – and she had plenty of them.

Get me out of here

Her own mental voice was barely controlled, but he was linked with her, of course, and knew that she wasn't going to do anything stupid – like thrashing.

_You need to move slowly,_ he warned her. _I kept you under for a long time, but you're far from completely healed_

What? How long?

_Three weeks_

She was stunned – and more than a little dismayed.

Are you serious?

She could tell that he was, however. Even before he answered.

_I had to. I couldn't risk you panicking and insisting on being moved out of the gel until I was able to regrow the skin you burned_

How much skin?

_Face, neck, hands, lower arms and a lot of your back_

As he said it, she was getting images of just how badly she'd been hurt. Broken bones aside – and there had been a few – the burns had been the worst of it, making the concussion and cracked skull seem like little stuff, even though they had been serious as well.

Will I be all right? She asked, catching some kind of worry coming from him that belied the fact that he was telling her he'd taken care of most of those problems.

_You're going to be fine. I'd keep you in here a few more days, just because it really does make healing you easier, but the risk of infection is gone, and if you don't start using your lungs it'll make things harder on you later. Besides, you need a chance to stretch some muscles that haven't moved in too long_

He could keep the muscles from atrophying – and he had – but she still needed to use them.

How do I get out?

_Whoever put us in here should be able to tell that you're ready to get out. The gel changes color – or at least it's supposed to. There's supposed to be a control button…_

He opened her eyes and for the first time she could get a good look at the stuff she was in. She'd already known it was thick, but now she could see that it was darkly tinged green – so dark that it seemed like she was in the middle of an oil slick. And it made her panic again.

_Easy…_

He took control and moved her hand; feeling for a button that he knew was supposed to be there. A moment later they both felt it, and he pressed it.

_It shouldn't take-_

The pod opened suddenly – she felt it, but couldn't see it – and Talon allowed her to sit up. Her head broke free of the gel and she wiped her eyes – and promptly started heaving.

_We have to get it out of your lungs,_ he told her.

She turned and leaned over the side of the now open pod, noticing in doing so that the floor was concrete.

Talon seized the muscles around her diaphragm and she felt a jolt as he expelled an astounding amount of the liquid from her lungs. It spewed onto the floor, not the green that she was covered in, but something a little clearer.

Gasping and sputtering, Melony held onto the side of the pod as she puked up everything that had been in her stomach – which was nothing but gel, also.

_Concentrate on breathing,_ he advised her.

Get me out of here…

Without waiting for him to actually do it, she used her hold on the side of the pod to pull herself out of the pod – and fell on her head on the concrete floor when none of the muscles she tried to use to brake her momentum would respond.

_Easy, Hot Shot. Give it a moment_

At least she didn't hurt. Although she did realize as she tried sitting up that she wasn't wearing anything.

We're at the SGC, she told him, looking around a moment before she started heaving again. There was a cream colored curtain blocking most of the view – and a bed right beside the pod – but she hadn't needed to see more than the floor and the ceiling in order to recognize the place. The Asgard didn't have anything that looked like that.

_Looks like it,_ he agreed, trying to get her insides under control before she damaged one of the ribs he'd spent so much time healing. We need to-

"Melony!"

She hadn't noticed the alarms blaring when she'd opened the pod – it might have had something to do with the gel in her ears – but Carson had been hovering and had heard the commotion and come running.

She looked up, surprised to see him but really too miserable to do more than try and croak a greeting.

Luckily, he didn't even need that. With practiced skill, he got her to her feet, bundled her in one of the blankets and settled her down onto the bed, her head lowered between her knees while she continued to heave.


	30. Chapter 30

She was trembling, but he wasn't completely sure whether it was reaction or because she was cold. Probably a combination of the two. She was also heaving so hard he was afraid she'd do damage to her already injured ribs, but it was clearly necessary since there were copious amounts of the clear gel coming out of her lungs and undoubtedly her stomach as well. Who knew how inundated the stuff became when someone was submerged for so long? He simply made sure she was bundled in the blanket and tried to support her head and shoulders as well as he could until the worst of the heaving had passed.

"Easy…"

She shuddered again, trying to get herself together, and managed to turn her head to look at him. Her face was pale, gaunt and still smeared with the gel she was covered in.

"The others?" she croaked, the question ending with a coughing fit.

He waited until she could hear him.

"They're fine. Sheppard had a concussion, Rodney hit his face. Both are okay."

She nodded, and pulled the blanket tightly around her, and he tightened his grip on her.

"We need to get you warmed up and get this stuff off you…"

She nodded again, but didn't have the strength to hold her head up, much less do any of the other things he'd just mentioned. It wasn't a problem though. Carson and Fraiser had both expected that the longer she stayed in the gel the worse the reaction would be when she finally came out. They had a plan already in place for when she emerged.

He opened the curtain that had kept her separate from the rest of the room and gestured to a couple of medics who had been alerted by the sound of the coughing. Carefully they helped her to her feet and mostly just carried her to a waiting shower where she'd be warmed up and cleaned at the same time. A bath would have done the trick, too, but Fraiser had argued that being immersed in water was probably the last thing she'd want after what she'd gone through, and Carson had agreed.

While they were taking care of her, Beckett and one of the others cleared the bed and remade it, then brought out a couple of warmed blankets and set them on the end in case they were needed. By the time the medics brought Melony back – now dressed in light blue scrubs and looking a bit damp but far less pale – they were ready to tuck her into bed and give her a chance to catch her breath.

And she was asleep before they'd even finished covering her up and hooking her up to monitors that could finally keep track of her progress.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

The phone pulled Jack O'Neill from a very pleasant dream. Consequently, he was a little brusque when he answered it.

"O'Neill."

"General, it's Fraiser."

Instantly awake, Jack sat up.

"What's happening?"

"She's awake and out of the gel."

"Is she okay?"

He was already getting out of bed and heading for his closet, phone tucked between his shoulder and ear.

"She hasn't said much, but Carson says she seemed lucid. She's-"

"You didn't put her back in that stuff, did you?"

"No, sir. She's in a bed, now, and being closely monitored."

They'd managed to keep track of her progress in the gel only minimally – and only because Fraiser had the idea to x-ray the entire pod on a regular basis to get some idea of how Talon was doing. They couldn't get a clear picture of the soft tissue, but they could watch over the weeks as the bones that had been broken slowly started knitting together once more.

"I'll be right there."

"She's asleep, sir," Janet told him, knowing there wasn't really any reason for him to come down – but knowing that he was going to no matter what she said. "There's nothing you can do."

"I know. I'll be there shortly."

He hung up the phone and got dressed, calling Daniel and Carter while he did.

OOOOOOOOOO

While Colonel Mitchell slept, the medical staff ran tests on her. Not just a couple of tests, either. They took samples of everything, X-rayed her, gave her a CT scan and tested all her reflexes. It had been frustrating to all of them to not know what was going on inside the gel – although they all had to admit that the burns they'd known were there looked as if they'd never happened. Her skin was very tender and soft – and a bit red – but there weren't any scars and it was impossible to tell where healed skin started and unaffected skin began. Talon did good work – even better with help from the Asgard.

By the time Jack arrived in the infirmary Fraiser and Beckett were ready for his questions.

"Can I see her?"

That wasn't a surprise. They moved aside and allowed him to walk to the end of the room, where he pulled back the privacy curtain and went over to stand beside the bed she was sleeping in. Her face was woefully thin – he'd known that she was going to lose weight in the pod, but Fraiser and Beckett had both told him that it couldn't be helped. They couldn't open it to allow her something to eat, and Thor had assured Fraiser that Mitchell could survive twice as long as she had in it.

"Is she burned?"

Fraiser shook her head.

"Not at all. A lot of tender spots that should heal completely, but you have to know what you're looking for in order to see them."

"She's in remarkably good shape, General," Carson told him, looking relieved – and really tired. "That gel is amazing stuff."

"Not much good for someone who doesn't have a symbiote, though, huh?"

Fraiser shrugged.

"It could still have some uses. It certainly served its purpose this time."

"No lasting affects?" Jack asked.

Fraiser understood the question, although Carson looked a little lost. She shook her head.

"None as far as I can tell. We'll have to wait until she wakes up again to really know for sure but all the tests we took came back promising."

"Good." He glanced back down at the sleeping figure in the bed. "Beckett? Why don't you call Atlantis and tell them the good news?"

Carson nodded.

"I was thinking the same thing, General."


	31. Chapter 31

_Wake up Hotshot…_

She didn't really want to; afraid what she might find herself in this time, but instead of Talon looming in her consciousness trying to keep her calm – like he would have done if something was really wrong – he was simply concerned. She'd had him concerned several times – usually after they done something foolish or incredibly dangerous and had paid for it.

_You paid plenty_

His mental voice carried more than concern for her health, but since she wasn't really at a hundred percent just then, she wasn't able to figure out exactly what it was. He didn't give her a chance to at any rate.

_I need you to wiggle everything_

Since she didn't hurt, she opened her eyes and looked down at the hand that he directed her attention to first.

My watch is gone

_Wiggle the fingers, Hotshot_

She did what she was told, but was distracted and looked around while she did so, trying to see where she was. Still in the infirmary from the looks of things, with a bank of monitors and wires and tubes everywhere.

Carson's not here…

Neither was Fraiser or any other medical personnel, for that matter. Which told her it was most likely nighttime.

_I did that on purpose,_ Talon told her. _We need a little peace and quiet so I can get an idea of where you're at as far as your health – and we can't do it with Carson hovering over you, or Fraiser and her medics probing and prodding_

She could understand that. She even agreed with him on that, since no one hovered like a doctor – especially a concerned doctor that you were sleeping with. It was nice most of the time, but she honestly didn't feel like putting up with it just then.

_Other hand_, Talon directed

She wiggled those fingers as well

_Good_

He didn't ask her where it hurt like Carson or Fraiser would have, because he already knew – which was the whole point of having her do it.

_Toes?_

He ran her through all her toes and hands, arms and legs before he stopped. By then he had a good idea of how she was doing – and so did she – plus she was more awake than she had been.

We lost, huh? She said, looking up at the tiles in the ceiling.

She felt a wave of chagrin coming from him.

_Yeah_

_Lantica_?

_It had to have been destroyed, _he told her, and now he was oozing guilt – and she realized that was what she'd felt coming from him before, too. _There's no way it survived_

_We_ did, she pointed out. Maybe she did, too…

She knew better, though. The ship's self destruct had been activated, and she and Rodney had been the only two who knew how to turn it off. Rodney hadn't been on _Lantica_. That much she remembered quite clearly.

_I'm sorry, Melony,_ he told her. _It's all my fault_

She tried to shrug it off, but he wouldn't let her.

_I'll make it up to you, I swear. We'll build a-_

It's all right, Talon. She could feel how bad he felt, and that made her feel guilty, too, somehow.

_I'm sorry. You didn't want to take them on and I talked you into it and I shouldn't-_

"Talon…"

She spoke aloud because she didn't feel well enough to have an entire argument inside her own head.

_It's not an argument, Hotshot, _he told her. _I'm just saying I'm sorry_

A _hundred_ times.

_I'm _really_ sorry_

She smiled, tiredly.

"It's not the end of the world. At least we survived."

_Thanks to the Asgard_

She scowled at that reminder, and at the memory of the gel she'd been in.

"How long have I been out this time?"

_Couple of days_

I wonder where everyone is…

When _she_ had a friend in the infirmary she was hovering constantly – no matter what time of day it was. While Talon might not want people hovering, she needed some information about the others, and he didn't know any more than she did.

Almost as if someone had been reading her mind, the curtain surrounding her little area of the infirmary suddenly twitched and McKay's head poked through carefully. He brightened a little when he saw she had her eyes open, but didn't move.

_Waiting for an invitation?_ Talon asked.

That'd be a first

"Can I come in?" Rodney asked, his voice about as soft as she'd ever heard it. Without waiting for a reply he entered and carefully closed the curtain around behind him.

"Are you _supposed_ to be here?" Melony asked, deciding that he was being pretty sneaky – which was out of character for him. Usually he was more than happy to barge in wherever he wanted to be.

"Not exactly," he admitted, going over and leaning against the chair by her bed but not sitting in it. She frowned, wondering why he hadn't just plopped into it like he normally would have. Sheppard or Ronon certainly would have. "I heard your voice and thought I'd see if you were awake…"

"You're still confined to the infirmary?" she asked, confused.

"No." His hand went to his face, and he rubbed his nose gingerly. "Doctor Fraiser let me out after only a few days. The bruising is all gone and nothing was broken."

"Good."

He hesitated.

"I was hoping to have a chance to talk to you. I… I wanted to apologize to you."

She cocked her head sideways, looking at him uncertainly since she'd never heard that tone of voice from him before.

"For what?"

"Everything that happened was my fault," he said in a rush. "I was so sure that we could take the Replicators that I risked _Lantica_ – and you – and got the ship blown up and you almost killed."

"Rodney-"

"No," he interrupted. "I… I could have gotten you killed. I could have gotten Sheppard killed, and Ronon, and I almost did. I was so sure that we could catch one that-"

"They ambushed us, Rodney," Melony told him, remembering slowly what had happened. "You couldn't have expected them-"

"I _should_ have."

"I didn't," she pointed out. "I'm better at that kind of thing than you are and I didn't expect-"

"_You_ didn't want to go along with the plan," McKay reminded her. "I talked you into it. If I would have just kept my mouth shut I…" he trailed off. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry, you know? And I'll make it up to you."

Didn't that sound familiar? Between Rodney and Talon she had her hands full of apologies and I'll make it up to yous…

_He means it_, Talon told her, unnecessarily. _And so do I_

Melony sighed, feeling an ache for the first time since she'd woken up. It was a lot better than hurting all over, though, so she wasn't complaining.

"Rodney, it's okay. You made a mistake, that's all. Got a little too eager. It happens."

"Not to me."

"To everyone," she told him. "Including you. And me. And Talon," she added. "He was pushing just as much as you were, you know?"

He didn't seem to know what to say to that. Instead, he sat down in the chair he'd been leaning against and looked at her, probably trying to formulate another reply. He was a master debater, she knew, and would drive her crazy with all sorts of arguments about what he'd done wrong. Something she wasn't feeling up to listening to just then. So she changed the subject before he could worry it like a puppy with an old shoe.

"How are the others?"

He looked startled by the question for a moment, and then shrugged.

"They're okay. Fine, really. Sheppard's head healed up and Ronon wasn't hurt at all. When we were cleared from the infirmary, we went back to Atlantis, but I've been back a couple of times since."

"And Carson?"

McKay rolled his eyes.

"He's practically living here. Driving Fraiser nuts, and always hovering over me asking if my head hurts."

"Does it?"

"Sometimes." He brushed that aside with a gesture, but then gave her a sidelong glance, clearly remembering his promise to make things up to her. "Want me to go get him?"

She smiled, allowing him the chance to have his fun with her – and glad that he wasn't rolling in guilt.

"That would be nice."


	32. Epilogue

"Seriously, you're driving me crazy…"

_I'm sorry_

"I know. You're in my _head_. I can feel how sorry you are. Stop saying it."

_Okay_

Talon grumbled a little to himself, but he didn't say he was sorry again – although she knew that he'd been about to. The problem was, she'd been serious. Between him _inside_ her head telling her every hour how bad he felt about his role in the destruction of _Lantica_ and McKay hovering around her doing the same thing every chance he got, it was beginning to wear on her nerves. Even worse, they were both sincere about how bad they felt and both of them were doing their damndest to make sure she knew about it.

While she'd been confined to the infirmary, Carson and Fraiser – with a fair amount of help from both Jack O'Neill and Elizabeth Weir – had been able to keep Rodney from her bedside all hours of the night asking her what she wanted in the new ship he was already designing. A new ship that was going to be Replicator proof, he promised. _More_ annoying while she was stuck in bed was the fact that Talon kept thinking of new things for the new ship as well, and he would run them by her any time she was awake and a thought came to him. As smart as he was, they were constantly coming to him.

Once she was freed from the infirmary and allowed to move around a bit – but still stuck on Earth because she and the others were spending a fair amount of time sifting through the intel they had on the Replicators – she was again hounded almost nonstop by Rodney, who had taken to constantly carrying a laptop with ideas for the new ship. She'd finally gone to Jack for help, and although he'd been far more amused than sympathetic, he had assigned McKay and Carter to the Replicator problem and sent both of them to Atlantis to see if there was any mention of them in the huge Ancient database.

That had given her a little peace and quiet – minus the constant murmuring in her head – and she'd actually managed to enjoy her time on Earth, despite the way she'd arrived and the fact that she never wanted to see that little pod that Fraiser had sitting in a storage room off the infirmary waiting for Thor or one of the other Asgard to come and collect it.

She and Jack had taken a day and gone fishing in one of the numerous rivers that ran through the mountains around Colorado Springs, and had pulled in several good looking trout before she'd been ticketed by a fish and wildlife agent for not having a proper fishing license for the state of Colorado. Something neither of them had even considered. It had been worth it, though. She'd needed a distraction and time spent with Jack was always a plus.

Besides, Talon had never had trout.

"Are you about ready?"

The sudden question pulled her out of her reverie and she turned to see that Sheppard had arrived at the door to her on-base quarters. He was dressed in typical black BDUs and she noticed that his hair was growing a little out of control once more. But she didn't call him on it.

_He's probably like that Harry Potter kid,_ Talon remarked, amused and for a pleasant change _not_ in apology mode. _Can't control it no matter what he does…_

She smirked, but didn't comment. Instead she nodded and brushed a hand down the front of her own uniform to make sure it hadn't managed to wrinkle. Not that it mattered, since they were on stand down for the rest of the day, but she _was_ an Air Force Colonel – despite other titles she could claim – and she refused to look wrinkled.

"Did McKay and Carter arrive?"

"About an hour ago."

"Teal'c?"

"He came with Teyla."

Now _John_ smirked as well, because the two of them privately enjoyed the relationship developing between Teal'c and Teyla – and neither of them would even consider asking the two of them how it was going. It wasn't any of their business – but it was fun to speculate about.

_Privately, of course_

Hush.

Talon snickered in her head, but it only made her smile as she and Sheppard headed for the elevators that would take them up to the surface.

OOOOOOOOO

"Are you sure you don't want _me_ to drive?" Sheppard asked her ten minutes later.

Melony's answering smile was good-natured – it was a gorgeous day and she was glad to be out again. Especially since they were going to a party. Her brother's Mustang was gleaming in the sun and the top was down since it was so nice out. Sheppard had been drooling over it since the first time he'd seen it.

"You'd scratch it."

"A beauty like this?" He looked shocked. "Never. I'd treat her like glass…"

She hesitated, but then shrugged and tossed him the keys.

"Fine."

He caught them automatically, but stared at her in surprise.

"Really?"

"Why not?"

Talon and McKay weren't the only ones feeling a little guilty. Sheppard had been injured in their half-assed plot to take on the Replicators and Mitchell knew it could have been prevented. Letting him drive the Shelby was a good way to make up for it without actually saying anything.

He smiled, and headed for the driver's side before she could change her mind.

"You know where to go, right?"

"Of course. I've been there a million times."

"Let's take the scenic route…"

She laughed and got in the car by simply jumping in, but true to his promise John opened the door and carefully seated himself behind the wheel.

"Your brother had good taste."

She smiled; it was a long time since she felt stung by mention of her dead brother, and she knew he would have preened at the praise for his baby. Jack had done a great job of keeping it glistening.

"That he did."

Sheppard turned the engine over and put the car in gear, and the conversation died as they drove to O'Neill's house, him enjoying driving the Shelby and her just enjoying the breeze and giving occasional directions.

OOOOOOOOOO

It wasn't _really_ a party. More along the lines of a relaxing get together with people who needed a chance to unwind and didn't always have the chance. Fraiser, Carson and Teal'c were teaching Ronon how to play ping-pong and Teyla and Daniel manned the bar b que that was such an integral part of any get together that included Jack O'Neill. Elizabeth Weir had even arrived, lured from Atlantis with the promise of a nice quiet day off, a perfectly cooked steak and a chance to relinquish all decision making for at least the afternoon. At the moment, she and Rodney were sitting in a couple of lawn chairs watching the ping-pong game that had developed into quite a competition once Ronon had figured out the rules of play. Weir _had_ been ready to suggest that she and Rodney play winners, but the game was fast and furious and she wasn't all that sure she _wanted_ to play winners. Or losers, for that matter.

Carter and Jack were in the kitchen tossing together a salad while waiting for the final guests to arrive, and when they heard a car pull up outside, both of them looked out the window.

"She let him _drive_?" Sam looked over at Jack surprised, but O'Neill wasn't.

"She likes him," he said with a shrug. "Besides, she's been driving it for the past week everywhere she needs to go, so it's not as much of a buzz as it was the first time she got in it."

Sam just shook her head, but she was more than willing to admit that he knew Mitchell a lot better than she did. Sheppard tossed Melony the keys as they walked up to the door, and Jack met them with a smile.

"You're still alive, Sheppard, so I'm going to assume you didn't scratch her car…"

John grinned, and handed over a brown bag that was holding a bottle of good wine. Not great wine, but pretty good stuff. Certainly good enough for those who were gathered.

"She scowled at me the entire way here, sir. I didn't dare go over thirty."

O'Neill chuckled, knowing that was almost certainly an exaggeration, and waved both of them out towards the kitchen and the door that led out back.

"No wonder you're late. Everyone else is here, so go say your helloes and grab something to drink."

That said, he and Sam went back to their salad making while he watched Mitchell greet the others through the kitchen window where she wouldn't be aware of the scrutiny. Carter noticed the concern in his expression, however, and the way some of the lines on his face deepened a little. She'd seen that worried look before.

"You okay?" she asked, leaning a hip against the counter and stealing a celery stick they hadn't chopped yet.

He nodded, but didn't look at her.

"Just thinking about all the things that can go wrong with this Replicator thing."

Carter shrugged.

"They're a threat, Jack. But we've been threatened before. Nothing new there."

"_Lantica_ was a deadly little ship – the most advanced we have – and they took her down in an instant," he pointed out, still looking out the window.

"They didn't get any information from her, though, and it did serve _one_ good purpose… Something that will cause you a few less sleepless nights…"

He looked over at her, surprised by that.

"What?"

"Mitchell – well, Talon, really – knows just how dangerous and sneaky the Replicators are, now. After the destruction of _Lantica_, Talon's not going to be nearly as brash as he normally is – and he won't be taking Melony along with him on some crazy, super dangerous plan."

Jack hesitated, clearly considering that. And then he nodded, and even lost a lot of the worry in his features.

"That's a good point."

It had been Talon and McKay who had tried to trick the Replicators, not Melony, but he knew that Talon had some measure of control of Mitchell whether Melony wanted to think that was true or not. Now that Talon had almost gotten her killed, he had to admit that the chances were very good that he'd be a lot more careful in the future.

Sam nodded.

"I know." She covered the salad bowl and picked it up. "Now, let's go and have a good afternoon, shall we? Time enough for worrying later."

He nodded his agreement and turned away from the window – and his brooding. Sam was right; there was plenty of time for that later. He had every intention of enjoying this afternoon and they could worry about the future – and the coming war with the Replicators – tomorrow.

"You're right."

She smiled.

"Of course I'm right. I'm a-"

"Genius, yeah, I know."

He took the bowl from her and carried it out to the party, allowing himself to relax and enjoy the day. Time enough for other problems later.

_**The End**_

OOOOOOOOOOO

_Woot! So, I know I stopped sooner than some of you were expecting. Remember, though, that this story was about the shakedown of_ Lantica _and not the war with Replicators. That will have to wait for another story and another time. I hoped you liked this one and thank you all for reading and for reviewing as well, when you had time._


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